Messiah
by SUITELIFEFAN
Summary: What would you do if the world was placed in your hands? An exploration on the concept of a twelve-year-old redeemer figure. A Cody-centric fic. Reviews Appreciated.
1. Prologue

**Messiah - Prologue**

There was a loud rumbling overhead as the white clouds in the skies of Vatican City spread apart as the large military vehicle began its descent. At altitude zero, hoards of spectators and eager reporters shot their gazes to the heavens, as the helicopter appeared from within the opaque white. A man thrust a finger to the heavens and shouted.

"He's here!"

There was a sudden eruption of applause and caterwauling as a wave of euphoria broke out within the large crowds scattered along the roads. Almost immediately camera crews flipped on their equipment and aimed their devices skyward, their reporter companions hastily checking their attire and picking up microphones as they prepared to be beamed into broadcast feeds worldwide, their eager higher-ups back at headquarters waiting for the golden news item that would take all the front pages of the next day's newspapers by storm.

There was good reason, when considering the recent acts of the precious load contained within that very helicopter.

Up in the skies, the pilot was fully aware of the important person sitting a few seats behind him, shielded from his view by a barrier. He was under direct orders of his superiors to transport the person, and for the first time in a decade of flight experience his palms were sweaty with trepidation.

_One mistake and the world could end_, he thought fearfully to himself.

He hadn't even felt this fear when transporting POTUS multiple times in the past.

Gulping down a ball of saliva that had manifested in his mouth, he put on a stoic expression and turned to his co-pilot, who was similarly looking worse for wear. He nodded, and saw the co-pilot tilt his head affirmatively. Picking up the microphone from beside his large dashboard full of controls, the pilot took a few seconds to calm his nerves before pushing the intercom.

"Altitude of five thousand feet. We'll be continuing our descent and we expect to touch ground in fifteen minutes."

His voice rang through the narrow fuselage, which carried the passengers. It was unremarkably small, but within it sat some of the most important people in America. On the left, the Secretary of State sat, gazing out through the rounded window as buildings began to emerge from the ground. On the far right the Secretary of Defense, who was answering important calls back home from his untraceable mobile phone.

Behind everyone in the fuselage stood a row of armed bodyguards, with their stereotypical jet-black sunglasses and suits. Beneath their shirts were layers of bulletproof armor.

Directly at the center of all mentioned above was the Very important Person that the world was watching out for. As he looked out at the same window that the Secretary of State was gazing out from, he shuddered and sank deeper into his uncomfortable suit, underneath which he was earlier requested to put on a similar bulletproof vest as the bodyguards standing behind him were wearing.

He had never felt more out of place.

Sensing the fear that the young boy was emitting, the First Lady shifted up closer to the boy and placed her hand comfortingly on his shoulder. He was shivering.

"It's going to be fine. Don't worry…all this is to protect you."

She prayed he wouldn't lose composure in the face of the important hosts they were about to visit, but in some sense she realized that blame could not be placed even if he failed to act as instructed.

_He's so young_, she thought to herself. _How the fates taunt us._

With watery eyes, the young boy brushed his dirty-white hair, his most distinctive feature, out of his eyes and looked into the First Lady's own. She nearly melted at the innocence in his eyes.

"I don't understand why my mummy couldn't come."

A surge of pity ran through the First Lady's body as she realized how afraid and vulnerable the twelve year old must be feeling without his mother. It was not the first time the First Lady had questioned the sensibility of flying the young boy halfway across the world away from safe territory without his parents, but her advice to her husband had fallen on deaf ears.

_Too much is at stake_, she recalled the most important man in the United States saying. _We should take advantage of this_.

She couldn't find anything else to say to the young boy, and settled with leaning over and embracing him slightly. Slowly she felt his shivering cease and heard his breathing calm. Gently, she tried valiantly to deliver a dash of maternal quality to the terrified cub by whispering comforting words into his ear. She wasn't his mother, but it was the least she could do under the circumstance. She smiled as she felt him grip her hand firmly.

The plane landed.

Almost immediately, the bodyguards stepped forward and surrounded the boy's seat. The Secretary of State unbuckled her seatbelt as the Secretary of Defense stood up, eyeing the hoard of bodyguards carefully and watching them nod back, unspoken words exchanged between them.

The pilot opened the door to the cockpit and faced the waiting passengers. Breathing a sigh of relief at his successful landing, he turned to the Secretary of Defense and delivered a sharp salute, which the man responded to in kind.

"Sir, we have successfully landed at Vatican City."

"Thank you."

The First Lady felt the boy's grip grow tighter at their words.

The Secretary of Defense stepped up to the boy's seat as the surrounding sea of bodyguards parted. Kneeling down to meet the boy's eye, he smiled and spoke, sincerity running through his tone despite his slightly scary facial features.

"Mr Martin, we have arrived. Shall we proceed?"

The boy gulped and turned to the First Lady, who nodded encouragingly.

"Yes."

"Thank you, Mr Martin."

The boy stood from his seat and took a moment to find his legs, which were numb after the long flight. Shaking his head to clear it, he yelped a little in surprise as the Secretary of State suddenly appeared in front of him, fiddling with the buttons on his front. After smoothing out the creases on his black suit jacket, she proceeded to straighten his red tie.

"There's nothing to worry about, Mr Martin. We'll be with you the whole time."

The boy nodded nervously, trying to convince himself that everything will go fine and he'll find himself back in the hotel soon enough. The short grooming session was done, and the Secretary of State stepped back, allowing the hoard of bodyguards to surround the boy again. The one standing in front turned behind and spoke.

"Just stay close to me, Mr Martin."

Without waiting for a response, he turned back to face the front.

There was a sudden hiss as the pilot activated the hydraulic systems to the main exit door. Slowly, the door descended, and handlers outside the plane quickly moved a portable staircase to the side of the plane, locking it firmly to the body.

The air was filled with overwhelming screaming and cheering. The First Lady felt the boy tense up again, and gently rubbed his tense shoulder to calm him. This time the boy remained stiff, staring out at the vast crowd that had gathered around the military helicopter.

A chant erupted out from the crowd.

"Messiah! Messiah! Messiah!"

As they walked on the path that was to lead them to their destination a few hundred metres away, the twelve year old snuck a hand into his jacket pocket and rubbed one of the few things he was allowed to bring on the impromptu trip to visit a certain religious leader. Blankie's fabric gave him comfort under his fingers.

Calls of Messiah continued ringing through the air.

Cody wondered how long it would take for the world to forget his real name.

* * *

><p>"Shocking. Just…shocking."<p>

Carey Martin saw a group of malnourished children standing at the side of the road, staring inquisitively at the group of foreigners in the expensive vehicle that none of them would likely get even close to owning in their lives. Her heart broke a little as she saw a girl, of possibly no more than 6 years old, cradling her baby brother whose skin fell weakly over the obvious contours of his bones.

Zack gripped onto his mother's wrist for support, fighting the urge to throw up at the sights he was witnessing. From outside the vehicle he saw countless scores of dying children waiting at the sight of the road, some praying that the foreigners would be bringing what they needed for survival.

The sun burned down mercilessly on the land as malnourished as the people that stood upon it. The ground, dry as the surface of Mars, was cracked from lack of moisture.

It hadn't rained in years.

At the front of the jeep sat the driver, a member of the Union Government of India. Upon hearing the comment made by the lady sitting at the back of the jeep, he chimed in.

"As you can see, this place has been reduced to a terrible state because of the drought, similar to many other places in India. The government tries to send resources, but it is…difficult."

Cody turned his head and faced the man sitting next to him, speaking in a voice laced with judgment.

"Difficult, or too generous?"

The uncomfortable question rang through the jeep, causing the man to fall silent. Cody slowly turned his head back towards the side window and sighed audibly.

"The only reason why all this is happening…is because your government isn't trying hard enough, sir."

The man frowned as he took in the seemingly nonchalant comment. _Who was this kid?_ Orders had come in from the Union Government an hour ago to pick up the child and his family from the airport, but he had not been prepared to deal with questions such as these. Matters to do with the Union Government were unknown to a small government worker such as him, but he was sure that they would not appreciate this attitude from their guest.

"I'm sorry Mr Martin, but I'm not obliged to offer comments about our government, though I would state that I believe they are doing the best they can to handle the situation."

The look the eerily calm child flashed him rang clear with amusement, making the man feel somewhat uncomfortable. He waited for a scathing comment, but didn't get one as Cody shrugged and continue his vacant stare out of the window.

The sun burned painfully down upon the jeep and the ground it drove on.

They had arrived at the checkpoint.

The group of four stepped out of the vehicle as government soldiers approached it. Removing a letter from the government from the dashboard, the driver showed it to the soldiers, who scrutinized the signature closely. Satisfied that the letter was genuine, the soldiers nodded and raised the barrier that kept the jeep from passing the checkpoint.

Carey, Zack, and the driver got into the jeep, and realized that the fourth passenger wasn't present. Looking out of the window, Carey saw her other son kneeling down on the side of the road, talking to a young child. Cody hair, white as the heavens, shone brightly under the hot sun.

"Cody! We need to go!"

Cody turned around and gestured to his mother to wait for a moment. Refocusing his attention to the young girl, he heard a desperate plea from her lips.

"Sir…help. No water. No food. Brother…die."

Cody hadn't heard anything more depressing in his life.

Resting a hand on the young girl's shoulder, he looked around at the barren, empty landscape. Afflicted by drought, the ground was completely unsuitable for farming, dry shards of soil lying testament to the miscare that the people were under.

_Perhaps I could start here_.

Realizing that it was probably a good idea, Cody stood up. The large eyes of the girl followed him, along with 3 inquisitive pairs of eyes from the jeep a few meters away. Cody redirected his attention to the center of a once proud piece of plantation; it's foundations still standing upright despite the sandy, barren ground.

It was time to fix things.

Cody strode up to the center of the plantation and stared up at the blazing hot sun.

_How does this go again?_

He closed his eyes and stretched his arm outwards, feet slightly apart, bending slightly backwards to ensure that he was still facing the sun.

Back in the jeep, the driver was now staring at the guest as though he were crazy. He wondered how the twelve year old was not burning up despite the black suit he was wearing. Looking at his two family members sitting in the vehicle, he flashed them a bewildered expression, longing for an explanation. What he didn't expect was for the blonde-haired twin brother to grin knowingly back at him.

"Just watch."

The driver redirected his attention back to the young boy standing at the center of the plantation.

A mystical air seemed to suddenly fill the jeep as the pressure of the atmosphere suddenly lifted.

A drop of moisture hit the head of the malnourished girl, who stared up at the sky. Another drop then hit the ground next to her.

Another drop.

And another.

And another.

Within seconds, a torrential downpour fell from the cloudless heavens and hit the dying earth, soaking the dry shards of the ground and utterly drenching Cody and the young girl, who now rose to her feet and started running around in jubilation, shouting in Hindi.

"Water! Water! Water!"

From within the nearby hut emerged the girl's family, in utter shock at the scene that was unfolding before them. Almost immediately, the matriarch of the family gasped and cupped her mouth with her hands, joyous tears rolling down her sunken cheeks. The rest of the family stepped out into the plantation and shouted merrily at the sky, thanking God for their salvation. Two young children then emerged and opened their mouths, drinking the sky's essence thirstily.

In the jeep, the driver yelled and threw open the door to the jeep, nearly tripping over his own feet as he practically ran out of the vehicle and allowed himself to be soaked by the land's long deserved rain. A few meters away, the working guards dropped their weapons and waved their arms elatedly at the sky, clearly breaching security code by not having their guns on them, but uncaring towards the rules just this once.

Zack smiled gleefully at the thrilled people and looked at his mother, whose face held a similarly blissful expression.

"He did it again, Mom."

Carey smiled and hugged Zack closer to her, relishing in the joy that her other son was bringing to the malnourished people.

"He did it, Zack. Cody did it."

At the center of the plantation, Cody finally lowered his arms and bent over slightly, out of breath. He was not yet used to large efforts such as what he had just done. Suddenly, he was nearly knocked over by a weight that grabbed onto his torso. Looking closely in front of him, he saw that the young girl, half his age, now gripping onto his suit jacket, looking affectionately at the boy who had just saved them.

"Saviour. Saviour."

The rest of the girl's family strode up to Cody and, to his horror, went down on their knees and started bowing to him. Hastily, he grabbed the hands of the matriarch and directed her to stand, shouting out desperately to the rest of the family to stand as well.

"There's no need, really. I'm just doing my job."

The matriarch started speaking to him in Hindi, in words that he did not understand. However, the gratitude in her eyes was unmistakable. Cody smiled back at her and nodded knowingly. Looking at the happy faces of the family standing in front of him, Cody now understood what he could do.

He could save the world.

* * *

><p>"…and that's why you're being granted this."<p>

Cody shifted from his cross-legged position uncomfortably and stared up at the figure standing in front of him. The figure was looking down at him with a blank, unreadable expression on his face.

"I don't understand…why me?"

"I can't answer that."

"But I'm only twelve! How could I possibly…"

"God works in surprising ways, Cody Martin."

"And that's what, the tenth time you've said to me since the start of this conversation?" Cody couldn't resist letting out a tiny growl. "Are you sure you aren't talking to the wrong person? I'll have you know that I'm an atheist."

"Words like those mean nothing to my God."

Frustrated, Cody placed his hands on his head and groaned, frustrated. He wondered why the figure wouldn't just let him sleep.

"Fine…let's say that whatever you described does indeed happen. What happens to me?"

"You'll be granted unfathomable power, and you'll save the rest of humanity."

"Are you being purposefully vague and obtuse?"

"I only speak what my God commands me to."

Biting back the urge to make a sarcastic comment, Cody instead focused on getting more information from his midnight visitor.

"What kind of power?"

"Ever read the Bible, young man?"

Cody shook his head.

"Comic books?"

Surprised, Cody nodded despite himself.

"Something along those lines, then."

Cody spent the next few seconds trying to comprehend the figure's words. The figure didn't seem as religious as the messengers or angels that fiction would depict them to be.

"So you're saying…I'll get…powers…that I'll eventually use to save the world?"

"Precisely."

Cody frowned.

"Why would the world need saving?"

The figure then frowned ominously.

"Sometimes seemingly ungrounded speculation is true."

"What?"

"You'll understand as time passes, Cody Martin."

Cody, now more confused as ever, was starting to develop a slight headache.

"I need to leave now, but I'll be back when the time comes. I have one last piece of advice…"

The figure then knelt down and rested a finger on Cody's nose, which he didn't brush away.

"Don't let it take over you."

And with that, he was gone.

When Cody woke up the next morning, he found on his head a mass of snowy white hair, and as the figure had described, unfathomable power.

It was time for yet another chapter to unfold in the history of mankind.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note <strong>– This story is called "Messiah", which is an anglicized word in Hebrew which refers to a saviour or redeemer figure. This story has been at the back of my mind for a very long time, and I no longer can suppress the urge to write it. The idea of a child messiah has admittedly been with me for ages. Readers who saw the first version of "Messiah" (which I have deleted) would have realized that the old version depended too much on OCs and was slightly painful to read. I decided on a rewrite to reinspire myself and make the story more appealing to all my readers.

This prologue was written based off excerpts from the main story. The story, as you will all realize as I continue writing, will reveal most importantly the strength of power and the terrors that come along with it. Think of it as a less frightening Suite Life version of Death Note (if you don't know what this is, google it).

I enjoy writing in different styles, as readers of my older fic "Food Therapy" would be able to observe based on the differences between that incredibly family oriented story and this slightly spiritual one. I would also like to bring out the fact that I am (like Cody) an atheist, which means that I'm running this story entirely on raw inspiration.

Do join me on this journey. Shall we?

~SUITELIFEFAN


	2. Chapter 1

**Messiah – Chapter 1**

With a jolt, Cody was sprung out of slumber land back into the land of the living, his arms flailing wildly as his body made an involuntary turn to the left, flipping him off the mattress and sending him crashing painfully onto the floor.

"Oww…" Cody groaned as he slowly picked himself up. Trying to shake his head clear, he stood firmly on his two feet and looked around him. Zack was still snoring loudly from the other side of the room, completely undisturbed by any noise Cody had made. Then again, there wasn't much that could wake Zack up from sleep.

_What the hell was that dream?_ It had undeniably been one of the strangest that Cody's brain had concocted. Perhaps the most unexpected thing was that he still remembered it, as Cody didn't usually recall dreams after he had woken up. Already, however, it was starting to fade.

The cleanliness bug within Cody's system sudden took hold as he realized that his skin's surface, for some reason, was sticky with dried sweat. Trying to push down a repulsed shudder, Cody decided that his ideal place-to-be was the shower. The wooly carpet tickled his toes. Silently, he tiptoed out of the room and shut the door. He then realized something was amiss.

The air felt different. Lighter, somewhat.

Cody frowned to himself.

After stealing a glance at his sleep-talking mother on the pull-out couch (obviously having a good time with George Clooney), Cody crept to the bathroom and shut the door, locking it behind him. The floor was abnormally cold, the tiles nearly freezing to the touch. Cody started the warm water running in the bathtub. He then slipped off his clothes, smelly from being drenched by bucket loads of sweat. Before stepping into the tub, however, he turned to face the mirror.

He blinked.

He blinked again, thinking it was a trick of the light.

Stepping closer to the mirror, he brushed a hand across his head, flipping his fringe upwards. As he let the hair fall back in place, his original observation refused to change, his fringe now laughing at the bewildered expression on his face.

_What the…_

* * *

><p>"Mom is going to kill you."<p>

Cody groaned as he pulled at his fringe for the umpteenth time that morning. Resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to turn golden blond anytime soon, he settled with letting his arms fall to his sides and just staring at the bathroom mirror, trying his best to ignore the pesky doppelganger that pranced around beside him.

"You just know she's going to kill you. Dyeing your hair, Cody? Really?"

Cody turned to his brother who was standing behind him bemusedly with a cheeky grin on his face and growled, biting at his words as he struggled to enunciate the syllables that threatened to spill forth in a torrent of swear words that he refused to let himself utter.

"I told you, Zack…I did NOT dye my hair."

"Erm, hello?" Zack stepped closer to his brother and lifted a few of the strands of silver on his head to highlight his point. "Then how the hell do you explain this?"

Cody sighed. He had no idea.

"And what's with the color you picked? You could have picked chestnut, auburn, or any other color, but _white_? What the hell were you thinking? You're not _grandma_!"

Cody fought back the urge to thrust a fist into his brother's face.

"For the _last time_, Zack, I did NOT…"

"…dye your hair. Whatever. Good luck explaining how it got that way, then."

Zack then maddeningly ruffled Cody's hair and skipped towards the bathroom door.

"I'm going to meet Bob for breakfast. See ya."

Cody shook his head in exasperation as he watched his carefree twin bound out of the bathroom. A few seconds later, the sound of the front door opening and closing confirmed that he had just left the suite. Cody stepped forward to the mirror and placed both hands firmly on the sink, looking fixedly at himself yet again.

Finally he was alone, and could gather his thoughts.

Frustrated, he closed his eyes and tried to recall the contents of the dream from the previous night, which now didn't seem more than a foggy mist in his memory. A figure, clothed in white, stood alone in his mind and taunted him as he tried to squeeze out every ounce of the previous night's reverie, but to no avail. He could tell the dream was significant, but he had already forgotten.

_The mind throws away the contents of a dream if it regards it to be useless information_.

Resigned to the fact that there was no bringing back the late night chimera, he decided to refocus his attention to the more pressing matter at hand. Frowning at the undeniable dirty silver, he strained his mind for a reasonable explanation for his sudden change in hair color. In his mind he could only recall one.

_It's possible for hair to turn white overnight due to fright or excessive stress_, Cody recited in his head as he pulled out a long forgotten line from his memory bank. Whether the line was extracted from a book or the Internet, he could not remember. It didn't matter to him at this point. All he knew was that it was the only way he could explain to his mother, and to himself, why the phenomenon had occurred. He knitted his eyebrows together as he tried to recall an incident from the previous night that had caused him unrest. None came to mind, and he glared daggers at his reflection in the mirror.

The excuse, as weak as it was, would have to do.

_Perhaps I'll actually get some dye later and recolor it._

Feeling slightly drained from the morning's surprise, Cody walked out of the bathroom and let out a large yawn, not entirely prepared to face the day.

* * *

><p>"It actually looks pretty good, Cody."<p>

Cody scoffed a little as he bit down on his ice cream cone, a melted chocolate amalgam of sugar and cream swirling slightly within its core as he continued munching on the walls of the ice cream's container. Max, a girl his age, walked beside him and chewed on her own vanilla ice cream cone.

"It looks disgusting. I'm just glad my mom accepted my explanation."

"What is the real reason for it anyway? Are you sure you didn't…sleep-dye it?"

Cody recalled the heated banter between his brother and himself earlier in the morning and winced.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't. I would have to have the dye to dye it with in the first place, and I didn't have any. I checked the entire suite this morning and didn't find any boxes of dye."

"So, do you think it's really..."

"Stress? It's the only thing I can chalk it up to, though it makes no sense."

"It's frightening though. If that could really happen to someone overnight…"

The conversation trailed off as the two pre-teens finished off their ice cream cones. Cody then recalled an incident in the recent past, he felt a twinge of guilt leap through him.

"Are you doing okay?"

Max turned her head and stared at him, confused.

"What?"

"The whole Zack dating thing." He winced as he saw her visibly tense up at his words. "I'm sorry for bringing it up, it's just that I still feel somewhat guilty for being part of the plan, and I haven't really had a chance to apologize yet…"

"Don't worry about it," Max cut Cody off. "It's been a few months, plus I've already forgiven Zack, so there's no hard feelings."

Cody sighed in relief.

"I'm glad. And here I was thinking things would be awkward between you guys…"

"Seriously Cody, things are fine between me and Zack."

"I know, I know, I'm just saying that…"

"Cody, it's fine."

"Yeah, I know. But seriously…"

Max growled as Cody, a novice at reading body language and expressions, failed to get the hint.

"Cody. Sense the tone."

Cody withered at Max's sudden show of aggressiveness. The tomboy had always frightened him somewhat, and he had clearly touched a nerve. He took an involuntary step back, watching as Max's angry features morphed back into nonchalance.

"It's really no big deal. Let's just…change the topic, okay?"

"Right."

The two friends continued chatting as they walked down the streets of Boston, most of the conversation encircling around Cody's new head of silvery white. In no time at all the pair found themselves in front of the nearby supermarket.

"I need to go pick up some hair dye. The least I could do is to cover up this ugly elderly hair."

"I'm telling you, Cody, it looks perfectly fine. I think it's…cute."

Cody felt a tiny rush of blood flooding into his cheeks, and quickly turned his head away so that Max wouldn't see it, trying to suppress the involuntary fluttering in his stomach.

_Wow, the hair thing must have really shaken me up._

"I think I would prefer my old hair color, still. Do you want to help me pick out a proper color?"

"Aw, sorry Cody." Max sighed as she glanced down at her wristwatch. "But I promised my mom I would be home for lunch, and it's almost twelve."

"That's okay." Cody tried to ignore the sudden sinking feeling in his gut. "Catch you later, then?"

"Sure! See you!"

The two friends waved goodbye as Cody stepped into the supermarket, the rush of air from the air conditioning hitting him and cooling his slightly sweaty body. As he navigated his way along the aisles, he succumbed to the nagging thought at the back of his mind and wondered about the incident with Max just a few minutes ago.

_What was that?_

Cody had no idea, but was tempted to attribute it as one of the weird things that was happening to him today. The nagging feeling refused to recede, remaining at the back of his mind, much like the pesky figure, taunting him.

Finally, he arrived the hair products section. Glancing around nervously to ensure that none of his friends would see him in such a "womanly" aisle, Cody quickly scanned the shelves and read the labels on the innumerous boxes of hair dye.

"Chestnut, Auburn, Fire Red," Cody pushed down a shudder as he recalled a certain mistake he has made in the recent past involving hair dye. "Brunette, Ginger…aha! Blond!"

Snatching the desired product off the shelf, Cody practically ran to the counter and checked out the item. Stepping out of the supermarket, he realized that he was only a few blocks away from the Tipton. Eager to get his original hair color back, he walked briskly on the way back where he came from. A few passer-bys flashed him curious looks as he walked past them, which he tried his best to ignore.

He couldn't really blame them. _It's not every day you see a kid with white hair._

As he walked along the familiar streets, he glanced down at the box and studied the instructions written on it, quietly mouthing out the words to himself as he walked.

"Allow your hair to dry naturally instead of blow-drying it…"

A sudden eruption of sound, one that shook the very ground he stood on, broke him out of his trance. Instinctively swinging his head to the left, his eyes met the startling sight of red-orange flame emerging from the windows of a nearby apartment block, licking the air threateningly as it quickly exhausted the nearby air's oxygen content. The side of the building was scorched black by the flames, and the rumbling in Cody's ears was slowly replaced by blood-curdling screams emerging from within the building. Already a black cloud was emerging the mother fire, enveloping the nearby buildings and sending Cody's senses into overdrive as he finally took a whiff of the black smoke.

He dropped the box on the ground.

_Oh hell_…

* * *

><p>The front desk of the Boston Tipton was overwhelmed by the swarm of guests who had emerged from their rooms at the sound of the explosion from two blocks away. Mr Moseby, the hotel manager, was trying his best to field all the questions from the concerned guests.<p>

"I assure you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the Fire Department has been called and they will be arriving at the scene in a few moments to put out the fire."

A worried lady, dressed in a bathrobe, voiced her concerns.

"Are we safe here? I heard the fire isn't far away. Would it spread to the hotel?"

Upon hearing her words, loud chattering broke out amongst the guests seated in the lobby.

"I assure you all that the Boston Fire Department is extremely efficient." Mr Moseby stepped into the middle of the newly formed crowd and raised his hands for attention. "You are all perfectly safe here. Rest assured that there is nothing to worry about."

Seemingly satisfied but still apprehensive, the gaggle of guests started to make their way back up to their rooms. Mr Moseby straightened his tie as he silently patted himself on the back for managing the potential crisis situation well. It was clear that his years of experience in the hospitality industry have not gone to waste. Right before he managed to step back behind the Front Desk, he heard a loud call from behind him.

"Mr Moseby!"

Turning around, he was surprised to see the hotel's lounge singer, who was looking especially worried.

"Carey? It's noon, why are you here so early?"

"Mr Moseby, have you seen Zack and Cody?"

"Thank Heavens no." Mr Moseby gave a scoff as he recalled the shenanigans that the twins have gotten into over the past year at his hotel. "I haven't seen the Twins Terrors at all this morning, though if I were to venture a guess I would say they are busy getting into trouble somewhere, hopefully far, far, far away from my hotel." He ended the sentence with a wide smile, which was almost immediately wiped clear from the expression that Carey was giving him.

"It isn't funny, Mr Moseby. They both went out a couple of hours ago, I haven't heard from them, and I heard from a couple walking along our floor that there was a fire close to the hotel."

Mr Moseby winced as he realized that Carey was worried for her sons, and cursed himself for being insensitive. Speaking calmly, he responded to Carey's urgent question.

"A fire broke out about two blocks away about ten minutes ago-"

"Oh my God!"

"-but it shouldn't be anything to worry about! The last I've heard if that the fire department is already on the case and are right in the midst of fighting the fire. Besides," he rested a hand on Carey's shoulder for comfort. "As much as I'd hate to admit it, Zack and Cody are intelligent kids. I really doubt they'd be in any danger, or anywhere close to the fire."

"I suppose you're right…" Sitting down on one of the lobby's couches, Carey calmed her anxious breathing. "I just wish there was someway I could be sure that…"

She then nearly leapt from her seat as a ringing sound emerged from her pocket. Drawing out the mobile phone, she then smacked herself on her forehead.

"Of course! I was so worried about them that I forgot I got them new cell phones a week ago!"

"There you go, Carey." Mr Moseby smiled. "There's nothing to worry about. Just give both of them a call and you'll see that they're perfectly fine."

"It's Zack." Carey breathed a sigh of relief as she read the caller I.D. on the cell phone display. Hastily pushing the receive call button, she slammed the phone to her ear.

"Hello? Sweetie, is that you?"

"Hi Mom. Just wanted to call and ask, cause Bob's mom is making spaghetti. Could I stay at Bob's for lunch?"

Carey smiled at the conformation that one of her sons was safe. Though she had plans to cook their lunch, for once she was not offended at the disregard her sons had for her cooking.

"Sure, honey. Actually, do you think you could stay over at Bob's place for the afternoon? There's been a fire a few blocks away, there are police and firefighters all over the place and I don't want you caught in the middle of it."

Carey heard her son gasp from the other end of the line.

"A fire? Is everyone okay? How's Cody?"

Despite the fear still pounding in her chest, Carey was pleased to some extent that Zack was worried about Cody. Despite Zack's constant teasing and picking on his little brother, the twins have been practically inseparable since birth, and Zack could reveal a surprisingly high regard for his little brother's welfare when danger was imminent.

"I haven't contacted him yet, Zack. Don't worry, I'll send you a message once I'm sure he's safe."

"Okay mum."

Carey hung up the phone and started tapping her other son's number on the phone, mouthing to Mr Moseby that Zack was safe. Pushing the phone to her ear, she listened to the beeping emitted from the receiver and prayed that Cody would pick up.

* * *

><p>Utter chaos.<p>

The fire department, having underestimated the severity of the gas explosion, had not brought in sufficient manpower to handle the situation. As the flame rose endlessly and inched closer towards a sky now masked with a layer of black smoke, the firefighters radioed in to headquarters for backup and tried their best efforts to prevent the fire from spreading.

A barrier had been placed up around the building to prevent civilians from getting to close to the danger zone, the barrier ordered to be placed up by the fire chief in fear that further explosions could follow after the initial blast from additional gas leaks. Behind the barriers were hoards of concerned passer-bys and hysterical family members, some who screamed the names of their loved ones and some who stared in horror at the calamity that was unfolding before their eyes.

Meters away from the blast zone, a ringing sound faintly rose from the ground, unnoticed by all who passed by the area. The mobile device buzzed endlessly, waiting for its master to give it due attention, but failed in its task, cutting off its rings and vibrations after a minute of desperation. Seconds later it reattempted its appeal for attention and failed yet again.

Backup had come.

The ground shook with vibrations yet again as two fire engines rolled their way into the blast zone. Desperate to assist with rescue efforts, the driver drove at top speed, not spotting the insignificant device on the ground and inadvertently rolling over it with the vehicle's wheels, the device shattering into a million pieces as it was crushed between the vehicle driven by the city's saviors and the cold hard ground.

* * *

><p>"He's not picking up!"<p>

Carey's maternal instincts were now on overdrive as she tried repeatedly to contact her younger son, but to no avail. Mr Moseby was now at her side attempting to calm her, with Maddie on the other side rubbing the singer's shoulders to comfort her. She spoke up.

"Carey, I'm sure Cody is fine."

"How could you know that?"

"Carey, I've known Cody for quite a while, and he's a smart kid! His phone is probably in silent mode and he can't hear it, or perhaps it's out of battery. You need to calm down."

"That's right, Carey," the hotel manager chimed in. "I bet Cody is perfectly safe right now. He's probably in the library, or playing with his friends. He's _perfectly safe_."

Mr Moseby didn't know how wrong he was.

* * *

><p>Cody didn't know what had possessed him to leap into possibly the most precarious situation he would ever experience in his life, but something in his subconscious took over during a moment of hesitation and drove him into the scorched building without any form of safety equipment. All he recalled was the beckoning of a figure and the cries of the people trapped within the building, calling to him like a siren's cry in an absurd moment of surrealism. He had ignored the yells of the firefighters who had spotted him and dashed through the front door of the building.<p>

Partially blinded by the bellowing smoke that threatened to suffocate him, his body screamed for him to turn around and save himself before it was too late. However, he no longer found himself in control, an invisible force thrusting into him a seemingly groundless determination and driving him endlessly forward. The heat was blistering.

He didn't even know why he was in the building.

As he pushed forward, a large wooden bar from the ceiling above finally gave way under the intense flames, falling from above and landing in front of the front door, blocking direct access in or out of the structurally unsound building.

He was trapped.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note – <strong>Pretty dramatic first chapter, isn't this? I realized it was boring for me to describe every little detail and instead I directly stepped into danger in the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

More little details of the Messiah issue will be revealed as I continue writing. The next chapter might not come for a while due to schoolwork, so do be patient.

Reviews greatly appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	3. Chapter 2

**Messiah – Chapter 2**

Hell is depicted as a land of everlasting fire and suffering, patrolled by devils and imprisoning the condemned for eternity. As Cody dashed aimlessly up the precariously damaged staircase of the apartment building, the nearby flames licked at the soles of his shoes, causing him to wonder if he was trapped in such a manifestation of the stereotypical hell brought to earth. His guess wasn't far from the truth. As his jacket slid over a flame on the cupboard he was running past, Cody smelt burning and hastily ripped off the outerwear before it had an opportunity to engulf him.

_What am I doing?_

Cody didn't know, but he couldn't stop.

His mind was eerily clear as he continued running up the apartment. He only recalled himself staring at the blast zone in horror before stupidly running into the building with no clear purpose whatsoever. If he somehow made it out of this hellhole alive, he already had plans to kill himself for his lunacy.

Why he was still running forward, he didn't know.

Almost mockingly, the figure that he still recalled, the last existing fragment from the previous night's dream, reappeared in his mind's eye and stared at him, as though waiting for him to make another move. He was tempted to scream at the man to leave him alone (especially in a situation such as this), but he realized the idea was doltish, and wondered if the toxic fumes were getting to him.

A chill shot through his spine as a blood-curdling scream rocketed through the air, causing him to halt his mindless dash. Standing firmly on the wooden floors, he listened again for confirmation that his oxygen-deprived body wasn't just experiencing auditory hallucinations. Another scream, this one more defined than the last. A single syllable rang through the smoke thickened air with perfect sonority.

_Help_.

Cody, body just previously filled with groundless bravado, was now rooted firmly onto the spot, his characteristic pusillanimous nature finally deciding to reemerge as cold sweat trickled uncomfortably down his back. As his teeth began to chatter uncontrollably, Cody wondered why his fear didn't kick in before he ran into the building. The scenario now seemed more and more absurd.

A dilemma.

His mind screamed for him to turn around and find an escape route, but something still held him in place, enticing him to step towards the direction of the plea, into the unknown. A foggy mist started to develop in his vision, but for some reason Cody knew it wasn't a phantasm conjured by his oxygen-deprived state. Involuntarily, he frowned at the flames in front of him, the flames that slowly ate through the walls. They beckoned, daring him to take another step forward.

_Challenge accepted_.

As a sudden wave of adrenaline entered his bloodstream and sent him to a crucial fight-or-flight mode, he made his decision. Realizing that the entrance to the apartment was probably already blocked, Cody submitted himself to fate, sprung from his spot and dashed forward. Only one thought remained in his mind, the thought also represented by a single syllable.

_Save_.

* * *

><p>With importunateness completely unfamiliar to himself, Zack leapt from his seat and snatched up his jacket from the chair, scrambling with the sleeves and unintentionally whipping Bob on the sides of his head.<p>

"Dude, dude, chill!" Bob spluttered as he pushed the sleeves away from his face. "What's up? You haven't even finished your spaghetti yet!"

Looking down at the unfinished plate of Spaghetti Bolognese staring up at him, beef meatballs and all, from the kitchen table, Zack felt a small twinge of guilt for putting Bob's mother through the trouble of preparing lunch for him and not finishing it. The guilt, however, was easily overridden by the terrible feeling that was rising in his gut. He had only felt this feeling a few times before, and the ending result always confirmed his suspicions regarding its cause.

"Sorry, man." Zack managed to speak as he fumbled with the piece of clothing. "And help me apologize to your mom, too. But I need to go."

"What? What's going on?"

"It's…" Zack wondered how he was going to phrase his sentence without sounding like a lunatic. "It's Cody."

"What about Cody?"

"I think he's in trouble."

Bob immediately perked up upon hearing his words.

"Trouble? What's wrong?"

"Okay, please don't think I'm a complete psycho for saying this, but…" Zack gulped. "I can sense it. It's our twin telepathy…thing. He's in danger."

"Huh." Bob looked slightly puzzled, but was concerned all the same. "What kind of trouble do you think…"

"I don't know, Bob. I don't know." Zack now looked significantly more vexed. He resorted to pacing around the floor to release the nervous tension that was building up inside of him. "But when I talked to my mom just now she mentioned a fire, and she promised to send me a message when she got into contact with Cody, but she never did. I have a really bad…"

Zack stopped his pacing, and Bob was startled to see how distressed his friend looked. The grimace was alarmingly out of place on his usually cheeky face.

"I have a really bad feeling that he's in trouble because of…that."

Bob didn't know what to say. Zack had indeed mentioned the twin telepathy before, but before today he had always thought that he was joking. He then realized that Zack was shivering slightly.

"Dude…are you alright? You're shaking."

"I'm fine. I just…" Zack wrapped his arms around his torso. "It's the telepathy thing. It hits pretty hard."

"I don't think you're in any condition to go anywhere, Zack."

"I need to go!" Zack nearly shouted. "Cody's in trouble!"

"Alright." To Zack's surprise, Bob then snatched up his own jacket from the coat hanger. "Lead the way."

"What?"

"I'm going with you."

* * *

><p>"Help!"<p>

The little girl screamed out a desperate plea as the incoming flames licked at her feet. Frightened by the intensifying heat, she backed into a corner of her room and hugged her doll, holding it tightly as she drew her knees up to her chest and began to weep, urgent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Help! Please!"

Deep inside her heart the girl knew that chances of anybody managing to make it through the blazing inferno were slim, but she still had to try and get attention. Her doll's arms were wrapped around her, but did little to ease the terror in her heavily beating chest.

Suddenly, she felt her pharynx rise, and without warning a violent coughing fit began. The carbon monoxide, fiercely poisonous fumes rising from the incomplete combustion of oxygen in the air, were binding with her blood cells and inhibiting her respiratory processes. The girl didn't understand what was happening, but knew she was in grave danger.

A loud bang emerged from the adjacent room, causing the girl to perk up suddenly. Another bang confirmed to her that there was somebody else in the building. Spirits rising, the girl wiped away the tears stained on her cheeks and stood up, trying to still her involuntary coughing.

"Over here!"

The smashing sound paused for a split second before continuing with greater gusto.

"Over…(cough)…here!"

Finally, the debris blocking the corridor to the girl's room was broken through, and a white haired figure ran forward and skidded to a stop at the sight of the obstacle in front of him. A thick curtain of flames rising from the ground separated him from the person he had come to save. Deliberating on his next move, Cody focused his attention on the frightened girl standing a few unreachable meters in front of him.

"Hey!" He waved his arms to get her attention. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but not for long!" The girl yelped as the flames inched closer to her feet. "Please hurry!"

_Think, Cody, think!_ Fighting back his own coughing, Cody scanned the room for any tall furniture that could be used as a temporary bridge to reach the girl. None were in sight. Anxiously, Cody scanned the ceiling and the walls, looking for items he could latch onto and swing over to the other side. The nearly empty terrain yielded nothing that could aid him in his quest.

The girl then succumbed to another coughing fit and kneeled over onto her knees as her body tried to expel the lethal fumes. Watching desperately from the other side of the wall of fire, Cody felt a wave of dizziness run through him. Shaking his head in an attempt to clear the darkness that threatened to overcome him, he realized the video game-esque situation he had been placed in.

_Carbon monoxide_. Maddeningly, irrelevant science facts from his books ran through his head. _Colorless, tasteless, odorless, lighter than air. _He struggled to keep his balance. _If I take any longer, she's going to die_.

_And so will I_.

It was said that in the most dangerous situations, humans under stress would obtain sudden bursts of adrenaline, granting them momentary superhuman abilities. Mothers fearing for the safety of their offspring have lifted objects numerous times their body weight to protect their children. Others have run headfirst into terrifying situations, adrenaline overriding fear in an attempt to protect.

The latter applied in this situation.

Making up his mind, Cody pushed away his mind's screaming for him to be sensible and took a few steps back to prepare for what he was about to do next. The girl's eyes widened as she realized what the boy trying to save her was about to do.

"No, don't!" She screamed out. "You'll kill yourself!"

He ignored her.

Taking a deep breath, Cody raced forwards towards the blindingly bright wall of death.

A leap of faith.

* * *

><p>"Mom?"<p>

"Zack!"

"Mom, is Cody with you?"

Carey hastened her reply. Was it sensible to cause her other son to panic over his brother's safety as well?

"Mom?"

"Zack…Cody is…"

"What? What?"

Beside her, Maddie shot Carey a pressing look, wiling her to tell Zack the truth. There was no reason for her to lie to her son.

"I don't know, Zack. I haven't been able to contact him."

She then realized Zack was panting as he spoke.

"Mom, listen. Bob and I are on our way to the hotel."

Carey immediately perked up.

"What? No, I told you to stay at his house! It's not safe here!"

"I know, I know! Mom, I think Cody's in danger."

Her heart fell.

"What?"

"I felt it again, Mom. The twin telepathy thing. Just like the last time with the accident."

Carey would have fallen over if Mr Moseby had not been supporting her. She was aware of what her son was talking about.

"It felt exactly the same."

The severity of the situation was now far greater than what she had previously feared. The mother of the twins was sure that Cody was in danger, and Zack's words were all the convincing she needed. At the same time, she had never felt more helpless. Though she was aware that Cody needed help, she didn't know where he was or what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into. She prayed the fire didn't have anything to do with it.

"Mom? Are you still there?"

Zack's question shook Carey out of her daze. Trembling, she spoke back into the receiver.

"Come to the hotel quickly. Be careful."

* * *

><p>Outside the blast zone, the anxious crowd waiting behind the barriers had not scattered, still urgently waiting for the adamant fiery devil to be put out. All three fire engines were now lined up perpendicularly to the building, the firefighters stationed to the vehicles rolling out meters of hose and blasting out water at violent pressures.<p>

Amongst the crowd, a young mother was screaming to the heavens. Breaking through the barriers, she ran towards the fire chief, who was shouting orders to the other firefighters.

"Emma! You have to save my Emma! She's still inside the building!"

Startled by the appearance of the woman next to him, the fire chief responded in a resolute tone.

"Madam, we're trying our best to put out the fire and enter the building. Please stay calm."

"You don't understand! She's my daughter!"

"I know you're worried, madam, but we're doing the best we can."

A few police officers on duty walked to the pair and tried to coax the woman back behind the barriers. She struggled valiantly against their firm grips.

"Let go of me!"

"Madam, we need you to step behind the barriers."

"That's right, Madam. It's not safe for you to stay here."

"I'm not leaving this spot without my Emma!"

"Madam, please…"

"I'm not leaving!"

A chorus of gasps from the crowd stationed behind them shook the trio out of their argument. Immediately, stunned fingers were pointed directly at the entrance of the building, which just minutes ago was blocked by a burning wooden barrier that had fallen from the ceiling. The entrance was now clear. In front of it stood one of the most unexpected sights anyone could have ever anticipated seeing emerging from an inferno as large as the one that continued burning angrily as it feasted on the apartment building.

A young boy, with hair as white as an angel.

Cody struggled to keep his balance as he stood in front of the bewildered crowd, an unconscious girl of little more than eight years old sitting on his back. His arms, not used to physical exertion, were throbbing heavily as he struggled to keep her from falling. His voice was hoarse with physical strain as he attempted to shout out.

"Help…medic!"

The medical personnel and firefighters, flabbergasted by the pair that had emerged from the deadly building, didn't respond to his call immediately. Cody swallowed painfully and shouted out yet again, straining his already impaired vocal chords.

"Please…help! Medic!"

He coughed violently and, losing all control of his legs, fell to his knees onto the hard ground.

Springing into action, the medical personnel snatched up their equipment and raced to the boy and girl who were still precariously close to the entrance of the burning building. Reaching the pair, one of the medics placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, and was surprised when he brushed it away.

Cody looked at the medic with desperate eyes.

"Her first…save her…first."

Another medic took the girl from Cody back and placed her on his own shoulder. Almost immediately a stretcher was brought forward, and the girl was placed carefully onto it. From afar, the girl's mother spotted her daughter in front of the entrance and broke away completely from the officers, running to the flock of medical personnel.

"Emma! Emma!"

"Madam, are you related to this girl?"

"Yes! I'm her mother! Please let me see her!"

The medic let go of the mother and watched her run to her daughter's side. She clasped onto the hoisted stretcher desperately.

"Emma! Emma!"

"She's unconscious, madam. We'll be bringing her to the hospital immediately."

An oxygen mask, brought over by one of the medics, was lowered and clamped onto the girl's face. Cody watched with relief as she was carried to the waiting ambulance stationed at the scene of the explosion.

"Thank God."

Cody then struggled to stand. Upon seeing his attempt to move, the hoard of alert medics immediately placed their hands on him.

"Young man, please let us bring you back to the ambulance."

Cody tried his best to brush their hands away.

"I'm fine…I'm not hurt. I need to…get back home."

"Young man, you've probably inhaled a lot of smoke. We need to bring you to the hospital for a checkup to make sure you're fine."

Cody frowned in frustration at the medics' insistent request. As the adrenaline slowly faded away, his vision was starting to yield to the darkness that he had mentally fled from just a few moments ago in the room, which was now almost completely digested by fire.

"I'm fine, I just…"

Cody's legs shuddered upon the exertion of his full body weight. Everything now seemed too bright, forcing him to squint.

"I need to…"

Finally, darkness won.

Cody's eyelids closed completely as his legs collapsed from under him, causing him to fall backwards as the last of his consciousness retreated back into his brain, his head almost hitting the ground if not for the quick hands of the medic that stood behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note – <strong>A shorter chapter this time, but I hope it was satisfactory. Some of my old readers might have noticed that I don't update as regularly as I did when writing Food Therapy, but that's mainly because of schoolwork and all that. I'll try to release a new chapter by next week.

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	4. Chapter 3

**Messiah – Chapter 4**

There was a flurry of rapid activity running through the Massachusetts General Hospital as the ambulance pulled up at the entrance, it's doors swinging quickly open as the medical personnel lifted the gurney and pushed it out of the vehicle. Immediately emergency staff took over the maneuvering of the wheeled stretcher and pushed it rapidly into the emergency room. On their way to the ER a doctor on duty caught up to the pack and questioned one of the nurses attending to the boy on the stretcher, speaking to her in the usual efficacious speaking method employed by all hospital staff.

"Update me."

"Patient is a twelve year old Cody Martin, one of the casualties from the gas explosion. Unconscious. Heart rate and blood pressure normal, evidence shows signs of smoke inhalation."

"Likely carbon monoxide poisoning then. Any burns?"

"No visible burns."

The doctor was slightly taken aback.

"No burns?"

"None."

_That's surprising_. Most patients that entered the hospital because of accidental fires almost always had burns of some degree. Looking down at the comatose boy on the gurney he was walking next to, the doctor realized that there wasn't a single scorch mark present anywhere on his visible skin. Even his hair, a particularly vulnerable albeit medically vestigial organ to fire, seemed completely intact.

"Wheel him in."

The white curtain concealing the inner workings of the ER from the waiting area was pushed open by the weight of the gurney passing through it. Immediately the doctor snatched up his stethoscope sitting in the equipment tray and put it to his ear. The nurses attending to the boy quickly attached him to the heart rate meter in order to constantly analyze the situation of their young charge. One of the nurses freed him of his shirt and stood beside him, ready to respond to any sudden emergencies.

What happened next surprised them. At the same moment where the doctor's cold stethoscope was pressed to the boy's chest, the boy's eyelids flipped open, revealing a pair of previously concealed bright blue eyes.

"He's awake, doctor."

"Alright." The doctor listened intently for a few more seconds before withdrawing the instrument. Stepping closer to the boy's face, he looked into the child's fearful eyes.

"It's alright, son. You were in an accident and you're in the hospital. Do you understand me?"

Cody nodded once.

"You have an important piece of equipment over your mouth to help you breathe, so don't try and remove it. I know it's frustrating to not be able to talk, but just bear with it for now, alright?"

Cody nodded again.

"Just stay calm. I need to do a few more important tests to make sure you're okay, so I'm going to have to administer a little something to help you sleep for about an hour or so. Okay?"

Another nod.

"Alright then." The doctor bent down and temporarily disconnected the oxygen's supply, in turn picking up another plastic tube and attached it firmly to the nearby anesthesia machine. He then turned a nozzle on the tube that connected Cody's oxygen mask to the instrument. Within seconds, a mixture of desflurane and nitrous oxide escaped into the tube and entered Cody's nostrils. Within a minute, he had succumbed to sleep.

The doctor slipped on a pair of medical examination gloves.

"Alright then, let's get started."

* * *

><p>The entire waiting room, including the people who were deep in sleep, were shaken awake by the sound of the front door rapidly opening and the loud footsteps that followed in their wake. Disoriented, the sleepers woke to the sight of a team of five runners hastily making their way to the receptionist desk, an anxious woman in her mid-thirties at the lead of the pack. Running with all her might, Carey ignored the throbbing in her legs and skidded to a stop at the receptionist desk. Out of breath, she shouted at the female receptionist.<p>

"I need to know if my son is here!"

Alarmed by the sudden hollering, the receptionist's head shot up from her computer and stared blank faced at the angry woman in front of her.

"I'm sorry?"

"Don't I'm sorry me! I just came from the gas accident and I need to know if my son has been sent here!"

"Madam, I'm afraid I can't help till-"

"Be quiet! Just tell me whether or not you've got my son in one of these rooms!"

"I'm sorry-"

"Aren't you listening to a single word I'm saying?"

"Excuse-"

"Listen, missy!" Carey growled at the receptionist, pointing her index finger at the poor lady like a wand, ready to pull a potter and curse her into oblivion. "If you don't tell me whether you've got my son here or not I'll have my lawyers down here so fast that you'll be in the courthouse before you see your next coffee break!"

By this time, the rest of the runners had caught up to Carey and were bent over, huffing and puffing, next to her. Mr Moseby walked up to the desk and placed his arms on Carey's shoulders, feeling somewhat sorry for the innocent woman who had shrunk into her chair at Carey's outburst.

"Carey, Carey, you need to calm down."

"How can I calm down when the staff in this hospital are so goddamn inefficient!"

Zack, who was standing near to the desk, widened his eyes in disbelief at the sound of his mother swearing, Maddie's hands reaching his ears too late. Mr Moseby turned his head to look at the two pre-teens and the rest of the flabbergasted waiting room sheepishly before turning his attention back to the angry mother.

"Right, Carey, I think, I _think_…" Mr Moseby scrunched up his facial features to augment his last word. "I think you need to tell her Cody's _name_ first."

There was an awkward silence as Carey began to realize the embarrassing situation they were in. The receptionist peeked from behind the file she had sitting in front of her as a shield and spoke meekly.

"That's right, Madam, I need your son's name to check if he's being attended to."

Carey flipped her hair back and forced on an expression of fake nonchalance, one that failed terribly in the midst of the crushing silence that now permeated the room. Trying her best to brush over her previous eruption, Carey snapped on a bad poker face and lowered her voice.

"My son's name is Cody Martin. He's twelve years old, and has blo… white hair." Mr Moseby shot her a confused look at this point. "I received notice from the police officers at the gas explosion near Central Boston that he was involved in the accident and was brought to this hospital. If you would _please_…" Carey's inner frustration at not being aware of her son's condition was now boiling through to the surface. "_Please_ tell me if he's here."

The receptionist, having gotten over her earlier shock, now tapped at the keyboard rapidly as she keyed in the boy's name. Scanning the monitor, she found what the exhausted mother in front of her needed.

"Your son is currently in treatment at the E.R. The system says that the doctors are currently conducting a few routine tests, but that he is no danger. He'll be moved to room…306 in about fifteen minutes."

The group breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of the good news. Bob threw an arm around Zack, who's breathing was now much lighter than before. Carey, however, was not entirely satisfied with the information.

"Thanks for saying that he's safe, but is he hurt? How was he involved in the fire? Did he get burnt anywhere? How is-"

Mr Moseby cut her off and directed her away from the desk before the receptionist could shrink under the weight of the questions again. He sat her down onto one of the waiting room's seats, and the rest of the group congregated around them.

"Carey, don't worry too much. We'll ask the doctor attending to Cody once the checkups are done. I'm sure he's perfectly fine."

Carey then narrowed her eyes.

"That's what you said just now at the hotel when I was worried that Cody was caught in the fire."

Mr Moseby loosened his tie and smiled shamefacedly.

"I was wrong then, Carey. I'm sorry."

Carey smiled.

"No, I'm sorry, Mr Moseby. I shouldn't be blaming you for anything. It's just that…I'm so worried!" Carey shoved her face into her hands in frustration. "You'd think Cody would have the sense to keep himself out of trouble-"

"Don't worry, Mom." Zack leapt onto the adjacent chair and hugged his mother, for once ignoring the fact that his "man pride" would be hurt with both Maddie and Bob watching beside him. "I can sense that Cody's fine. I mean…just now I was feeling sick because Cody was getting hurt, but now I'm feeling perfectly okay. In fact, he's sending me good telepathic vibes right now."

Carey couldn't help but smile at her son's childish attempt at cheering her up, while knowing that deep inside, he was feeling the same level of anxiety as she was feeling. Zack had always been good at concealing his emotions. She wrapped her own arms around her son and squeezed.

"I know, honey. I know."

* * *

><p>The doctor removed his mask and scrubs as the medical examination was concluded, feeling satisfied. Most emergency calls involving fire did not yield good medical results; however the patient he had just been attending to a few minutes ago was surprisingly healthy, much to his relief.<p>

As he stepped out of the examination room, a colleague working in his department walked up to him and smiled.

"Good morning, Doctor Burke. How's the patient?"

He returned the smile with one of his own.

"He's doing fine, Doctor Geller, and a very good morning to you too."

"Will you be going to the staff lounge?"

"Actually, I'll be waiting here for a while. I received a page from my assistant earlier that the boy's mother had arrived in the hospital and is on the way up here to see him. I assume she's anxious, so I think it's best if I'm here to brief her on her son's status."

"Good, then you can help me tell her what both a press member _and_ a member of the police department spoke of her son a few minutes ago."

Doctor Burke arched his eyebrows in surprise as his colleague retold the tale.

* * *

><p>"How is he?"<p>

The group had finally arrived at the third floor, and was anxious to know the details of Cody's situation. Doctor Burke stood in front of the examination room, facing the group with a smile on his face. He spoke directly to the mother of his patient.

"Your son is fine, madam. Most victims of fires such the one that had just occurred come to the hospital with burns, but I was pleasantly surprised and am glad to say that your son was not affected by any such burns. As of now he is unconscious due to the general anesthesia we had administered, but he should be awake within the hour."

Carey nearly collapsed into Mr Moseby's arms as her body shook with relief. Beside her, Zack refused to let any of his questions slide as he resolutely spoke in his mother's place to the doctor standing in front of him. He spoke his question in a tone of determined seriousness.

"What else do you know?"

Doctor Burke was surprised to hear the voice, and looking down, realized that he was looking at a boy who was nearly identical to the patient had just attended to, with the exception of the golden blond hair on this boy.

"He was, however, affected with a significant degree of smoke inhalation. The tests we have run on him yielded positive results, thankfully. As of now, we have placed him on nebulized heparin and acetylcystine treatment. He seems to be pretty healthy, so we expect to be able to discharge him within two to three days."

Zack didn't understand the medical-sounding words that came out of the doctor's mouth, but he seemed satisfied by the answer he had received. Carey looked at the doctor and smiled her first genuinely happy smile for the hectic morning.

"Thank you, Doctor."

"You're very welcome, Madam."

Mr Moseby placed his arm around Carey and smiled warmly.

"There you go, Carey! Cody's fine! You had nothing to worry about."

"I know, I know." As the adrenaline drained from Carey's bloodstream, a wave of exhaustion from her physical and mental exertion took over her body. "Though, I still can't believe that Cody got himself into such big trouble this time. I'll need to give him a firm talking-to when he wakes up…"

"If I'm allowed to interject," The group looked up at the doctor still standing at the entrance to the examination room. "You might want to reconsider your decision to scold him after I've told you what my colleague informed me about just a few minutes before your arrival."

"What do you mean, doctor?"

The doctor spoke his next sentence with a twinkle in his eye.

"Your son is a hero, madam."

"I beg your pardon?"

"From what I've been told from a colleague, who got this piece of information from police officers at the scene of the accident, your son was spotted by civilians running into the burning building and later emerging with a comatose young girl on his back. It was extremely likely that she would not have survived if not for his help." His smile widened. "The thought of a young man who would risk his own life to save another in such a precarious situation is one that gives me faith in our younger generation."

Jaws were dropped as the group of five took in the doctor's words. Doctor Burke placed his hand on Carey's shoulder and spoke again.

"Therefore, for his sake and mine, please don't reprimand him when he wakes up."

Doctor Burke picked up his clipboard from a seat next to the examination room and turned around.

"I'll be back to check up on him in a few hours. Have a good day, Ms Martin."

* * *

><p>Cody winced as a bright light was shone into his eyes. Struggling to shut his eyelids, he was slightly affronted when the nurse forcibly separated them as she checked the dilation reflex of his pupils. Seemingly satisfied that his eyes have been tortured enough, she withdrew the flashlight.<p>

Much to Cody's relief, the next instrument the nurse touched next was the oxygen mask still strapped firmly to his face, which she removed. About to thank her, Cody found himself coughing involuntarily. The nurse picked up the pre-prepared glass of water beside his bed and pushed it into his hands, watching him drink the liquid gratefully.

"Thank you." Cody thanked the nurse as he wiped the water residue off his lips with his sleeve.

"You're very welcome, sweetie, but don't thank me so quickly. You'll have to put this thing back on in about two hours to continue your treatment." She shrugged apologetically as Cody's face fell. "The doctor told me that you're quite a trooper, though, so your treatment might be shortened."

"Oh." Cody looked down at the blankets on his bed and fiddled with the fabric. Slightly disoriented from the anesthesia, he was unclear as to whether he had dreamt the past few hours. "What exactly happened to me?"

"You were caught in a fire, but you made it out in time. You didn't get burnt, thankfully, but you did inhale a dangerous amount of smoke, which was why you passed out and why we brought you in."

_So it did happen_.

Cody looked up at the nurse. Almost immediately, more seemingly irrelevant science facts flooded into his head. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out his next lines.

"Carbon monoxide poisoning, then? Did the treatment consist of nebulized heparin and acetylcystine?"

The nurse paused her writing on the progress sheet at Cody's bed and looked at the boy sitting in the bed in front of her, surprised. He was looking at her with a completely innocent look on his face.

"It did. How in the world did you know that?"

Cody blushed as he realized what he had just blurted out. "I read about it in some old medical books."

"Old medical books…wow, Cody." The nurse placed her hands on her hips, impressed. "You're pretty knowledgeable, aren't you? Do you want to be a doctor in the future?"

"Maybe." Cody couldn't stop himself from grinning. "I have this dream to be the first doctor lawyer in space."

The nurse smiled.

"What ambition! I'm sure you'll achieve your dream if you work hard enough. Of course, perhaps you're already well on your way to achieving it, if you already read medical books."

Before he could stop himself, Cody unwittingly let out a loud yawn. The nurse frowned in response.

"Am I really that boring, Cody?"

Cody waved his hands in front of him, horrified at what he had just done.

"No, no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"Don't worry sweetie, I'm just kidding." The nurse grinned widely. "The treatment makes you a little drowsy, it's understandable. Right, since I've finished the checkup, I'm going to let your friends and family in to talk to you, okay? I'll have to see you in about two hours with this annoying thing again, unfortunately." She held the oxygen mask in her hand.

"Okay, thank you very much."

The moment the nurse stepped out of the room, a group of five highly enthusiastic visitors came pouring into the room, having waited for hours, as he lay unconscious. Cody was nearly thrown out of his bed as he felt his mother's arms envelope him in a bone-crushing hug, joyous tears leaking out from beneath her eyes.

"Honey, I was so worried!"

"Mum!" Cody tried to push his over-enthusiastic mother away, but to no avail. "Mum…can't…breathe!"

"Mum, you're gonna kill him!" Zack pulled at his mother's shirt urgently, causing Carey to quickly loosen her grip. Mouthing an apology, she settled with planting a flurry of kisses on her son's cheek, much to his chagrin.

"We were very worried for you, Cody." Said Mr Moseby, who was watching the scene from beside the bed with slight amusement.

"That's right, Cody." Maddie spoke up. "You really gave us a scare back at the hotel. We had no idea where you were!"

"Zack was most worried." Bob decided to take the opportunity to chime in. "You should have seen how badly he was shaking back at my house when he thought you were in trouble-"

"Bob!" Zack glared at his friend, affronted. "I thought we made it clear to _not_ tell him that…"

"Thanks for the concern, everybody, and sorry I made you guys so worried." Cody smiled apologetically, before smirking. "And Zack, you were worried for _me_? I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful brother!"

"Don't get too used to it, my nerdy little brother." Zack punched Cody's arm lightly, before speaking softly in a significantly more concerned voice. "I'm glad you're okay, Codes."

Cody smiled.

"Thanks, Zack."

Carey, having finally gotten over her few hours of separation anxiety with a good dose of hugging and kissing therapy, finally found her voice again. Grasping Cody's head firmly in her hands, she looked into her son's eyes.

"I understand that you wanted to help somebody, honey, but don't you _ever_ pull a stunt like that again. You'll give all of us heart attacks."

"I know, and I'm sorry, mum." Cody then remembered the reason for his being in the hospital. "Speaking of which, how is she?"

"She's perfectly fine."

All heads turned to the door as a woman, dressed in a grey suit jacket and matching long pants, entered the room, a notebook and pen in her hands. Following her was a man dressed in a chocolate brown windbreaker and black sunglasses. In his hands was a large camera.

Mr Moseby immediately stepped up to the pair, waving his hands in front of them.

"I'm sorry, sir and madam, but this is a private room."

"I know, I know." The woman then shook Mr Moseby's outstretched hand, much to his surprise. "I just wanted to talk to the boy who saved that little girl resting just a few rooms away. I've got one side of the story, but now I just need the other."

Carey, sensing something was amiss, immediately walked up to the woman. The man stayed at the door, his camera braced in his hand.

"I'm sorry…you are?"

"Oh, did I not mention? Do pardon my terrible manners." The woman leaned in to shake Carey's hand, and with the other hand, she withdrew a lanyard from within her suit jacket, the plastic containing a card with the word "PRESS" in large font and capital letters. She flashed a wide smile, showing off two rows of perfectly white teeth.

"Estelle Willick, Boston Herald."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note – <strong>That was pretty fun to write! As some of you might have already guessed, the influence of the press will be highly significant in the development of the story, so as a little hint I'd suggest you don't ignore the Boston Herald too quickly.

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	5. Chapter 4

**Messiah – Chapter 4**

_Boston Herald, Human Interest Section_

"**Local Boy Hero saves Girl from Burning Building"**

In an attempt to save the life of a young girl unrelated to himself, preteen Cody Martin (12) dashed into a burning building on Beacon street yesterday without regard for his own safety, ultimately succeeding in his rescue attempt by bringing himself and Emma Leonard (8) out of the building minutes before its upper floors later collapsed due to extensive structural damage caused by a gas explosion, as reported by the Boston Fire Department.

Both Cody and Emma received treatment for smoke inhalation, and Emma also received treatment for minor first-degree burns on her legs. They are both in a stable condition.

No other casualties were reported from the incident.

Cody had apparently heard Emma's screams from outside the building before running into the apartment.

"I ran up the stairs until I finally realized she was on the fifth floor," says Cody during an interview in his hospital room, where his parent, sibling and friends who were concerned for his wellbeing joined him. When asked what prompted his courageous act, Cody blushed sheepishly before remarking that he just felt the need to save a life that was about to be lost. "I learnt from my mother that we should always help those in need," says the boy, as his mother sitting next to him ruffled his hair affectionately.

The girl he saved, Emma, was shy to the attention of the press, but said that she was incredibly thankful for Cody's act, describing how he tried to calm her while trying to find a way to reach her through burning debris. Her parents expressed similar gratitude and mentioned that they would find an opportunity to thank Cody for his selfless act.

Authorities have regarded the survival of the boy and girl from the burning building as a "miracle".

The mayor of Boston, Mr Jeffrey Rosen, spoke to the press regarding the incident and mentioned that it was "heartening to see the concern that Cody Martin had for a person not related to himself." He regarded Cody's actions as a reflection on the effectiveness of the Boston Education System, where "good values are pushed forward to students alongside academic curriculum."

On a less positive note, an enquiry has been launched on the efficiency of the Boston Fire Department, where witnesses to the incident described the department being shorthanded at their arrival at the burning building. Witnesses have also questioned why no one in the department had made an attempt to rescue the girl, resulting in a young boy taking on the dangerous task for himself. The head of the fire department has not provided comments.

- Reporter Estelle Willick

Photographs taken by Boston Herald photographer Barry Farber

* * *

><p>Cody nearly leapt out of his skin as sudden pressure descended on his shoulder. Whipping his entire body around, he faced the unexpected visitor and let out a gasp, the dreamy memories from a day back flooding straight into him.<p>

"You!"

The figure folded his arms around his chest and smiled blankly.

"Me."

Cody took a few seconds to find his words before speaking again, this time glaring slightly.

"I don't mean to be _rude_, but what are you doing back here?"

"I'm just here to check on you, to make sure you're alright." The figure allowed a slight flash of concern run over his facial features before snapping them back into expressionless nonchalance. "And also to see if you now understand the purpose of my visit from two days back."

Cody frowned as he gathered his thoughts. Now that the figure was standing directly in front of him, it was much easier to recall what he had previously said.

"I remember you mentioning powers, and saving the world."

"Indeed."

"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand what you're saying. If you could just be direct-"

"If you don't understand yet, then it's my God's will." The figure cut Cody off infuriatingly. Cody couldn't help but growl slightly.

"There you go on again about God. I already told you that I'm an atheist, and I still don't understand what you're talking about."

The figure smiled.

"My God can work miracles. Did you like your new hair?"

Cody felt a chill run down his spine as his fringe came into focus, still silvery white from the previous day.

"That was…you?"

"On the contrary. It was the work of my God." The figure seemed to be enjoying himself now. "My God can work unexplainable miracles."

Cody struggled to find his tongue.

"So…so what? I can hardly call turning my hair white a _miracle_."

"There's a predefined purpose for everything, Cody Martin. God's purpose for doing it will be revealed in time."

Cody desired nothing more than to stick his fingers into his ears and pretend the figure didn't exist, but a tiny part of him desired to learn as much as possible about what the figure, as annoying as he was, was telling him. It somehow seemed important.

"There must be something you can tell me." Cody urged. "Something. Anything at all that can explain why you're here bugging me with this information."

The figure stared straight at Cody, slightly amused by his uneasiness. He wondered if it would hurt to tell the boy just a little bit.

"The fire today."

Cody perked up at the mention of the incident that he had, miraculously, came out relatively unscathed from.

"It had a purpose."

Cody's frown turned into a glare as he realized the implications of the revelation.

"You caused the fire?" Cody was tempted to draw back a fist. "You almost killed that girl! What the hell were you thinking?"

"God's will." The figure was completely un-intimidated by Cody's sudden show of anger. "Will be revealed as time comes. Your focus, Cody Martin, is off. It is not the fire itself, or your act of bravery, that presents the greatest implications."

Cody was now utterly confused.

"It was what happened _after_ that meant the most."

Frantically Cody scanned his memory bank for the events after the fire. He drew a blank while trying to think of anything particularly significant.

"I don't understand. What do you-"

"I think it's best if I don't say anymore for now." The figure then turned away from Cody, who grunted in irritation. "I've already said too much. I will, however, re-present to you my advice from my last visit."

The figure turned back to Cody and rested his finger on his nose, which was, like the last time, not brushed away.

"Don't let it take over you."

* * *

><p>Cody woke up with a start; sweat streaming heavily down his forehead, as he panted heavily. The dream, being prepared for deletion by his brain, was still sickeningly fresh in his mind. However, Cody knew it would be lost in a few seconds.<p>

_Dammit! I need to write this down!" _

Cody whipped his head to the side, eyeing the generic bedside table that the hospital had sitting beside every bed. There was nothing on its surface besides a half-finished cup of water, but the drawer underneath the tabletop beckoned. Recalling his nurse coming in a few hours ago, he distinctly recalled her pulling out a notepad and a pen from the drawer and writing down notes.

He prayed it was still there.

After realizing that his face was subject to restraint by the irritating oxygen mask fixed firmly on top of it, Cody fiddled with the straps rapidly before managing to tear it off, freeing himself. He crawled a few desperate inches across the soft bed, reaching out his arm and grabbed the drawer, nearly pulling it down onto the floor.

_Come on, come on!_

The notepad and pen sat within the table, waiting for him patiently. Cody snatched them up and pulled them towards him, flipping the notepad open frantically and placing the pen on the paper, ready to write. He mouthed the words to himself as the pen slid painfully across the white surface.

"Fire…"

He tried to think of more, but drew a blank.

_Shit! Come on!_

"Fire…"

Cody clenched his teeth together as he resisted the urge to let out a cry of frustration. The dream, as significant as he knew it was, had vanished back into the ethereal as quickly as it had come. All that remained was the annoyingly persistent mist and a silhouette of an unknown figure, yet again taunting him.

Exhausted, Cody fell back into his pillow and stared up at the ceiling, angry with himself for not being able to remember something. His memory hardly ever failed him, but it had now chosen a terrible time to do so.

As he calmed himself, a single line, a remnant, rang through his mind.

_Don't let it control you._

_What?_

Cody wondered where the line had come from.

_Don't let it control you._

Tired from the physical and mental exertion, Cody wiped the thought clean from his head and fell almost immediately back into a deep slumber, his oxygen mask lying forgotten beside him.

* * *

><p>Awoken by the sound of yelling from a floor down, Max tossed her blanket to the side and lay face-up on the bed, trying to drown out the sound of the argument by stuffing her pillow against her ears.<p>

"You screwed up the pancakes, you stupid bastard!"

"What the hell did I do? I did exactly as you told me!"

"No you didn't, you dumb f*ck! You added too much flour!"

"Sonofabitch…you know what? I didn't want to help at all. I was trying to be nice, you stupid bitch!"

"You spoil whatever you touch. Get the hell out of my kitchen!"

There was a loud torrent of expletives that made their way up to Max's room, along with the sound of a door slamming shut. Knowing that the worst had passed, Max let out an resigned sigh and stood up from her bed, shedding her pajamas and changing into clothes that she allowed herself to be seen in when not constrained to her bedroom.

Realizing that her daughter was making her way down the stairs, Max's mother replaced the sour expression on her face with one of forced joviality, as though no argument had risen just minutes ago.

"Good morning, dear!"

"Morning, mom."

"Your dad went out to…get something. Would it be okay if you settled for toast for breakfast? The pancakes aren't exactly in a good condition."

Max nearly shook her head in exasperation at her mother's remark that attempted to brush over the shoutfest.

"It's okay mom."

"Alright, dear. The paper's next to the tv, if you want to read it."

Realizing that there wasn't anything else to do while she waited for her toast to be prepared, Max did something that was unorthodox to her morning routine and picked up the newspaper. Drawing out a random section, she peaked at its header.

"Human Interest…"

Max shrugged. Whatever section it was wouldn't really make a difference to her anyhow.

Right before she flipped open the section, a picture on the front caught her attention. She gasped as she recognized the boy staring straight at her printed in tiny black dots of ink. Urgently, her eyes scanned the article, her eyes growing wider and wider as he neared the end of the page.

_My God!_

Without thinking, she threw the paper onto the couch and extracted her shoes from the shoe cabinet, tying up the laces vehemently. Her mother noticed her sudden flurry of movement and walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron as she did so.

"Max, where are you going?"

Max turned apologetically and looked at her mother.

"I'm sorry, mom, but I need to head out to the hospital. One of my friends was involved in that fire yesterday."

"Heavens." Her mother dramatically placed her hand over her mouth. "But you haven't had breakfast yet, honey! At least wait for the toast to be ready…"

Max had already snatched her skateboard from beside the door.

"Sorry mum, there's no time! I'll see you later!"

The door was slammed for the second time that morning, followed by the sound of wheels against the stone pavement. Max's mother sighed as he saw her daughter speeding away from the house at top speed through the window.

A faint smell of burning reached her nose. She ran back into the kitchen, where the toast was turning black in a malfunctioning piece of kitchen equipment. Exasperated, she threw her hands up in the air.

_What can't anything go right today?_

* * *

><p>"Cody."<p>

Cody sat cross-legged on the hospital bed, staring down, fingers fiddling with the sheets guiltily. In front of him stood the friendly nurse who had checked on him the previous night, now looking significantly more disciplinary. One hand was resting firmly against her hip, while the other was holding up an object that Cody despised.

"You're a smart kid, Cody. Explain to me…what is this?"

Her tone was stern. Cody, slightly scared of the frowning nurse, looked up slowly at her, while trying not to meet her gaze.

"It's an oxygen mask."

"That's right, an oxygen mask. Now tell me-" The nurse placed the mask closer to Cody to emphasize her displeasure. "What is the mask supposed to do?"

Cody was now feeling more and more uncomfortable.

"It's supposed to help me get better."

"That's right, the gas that we pump into this thing has medicines that you told me about yesterday. They'll help you get better. Since you know this so well…" The nurse placed the mask on the foot of the bed, both hands now resting on her hips in a domineering position. "Why did you remove it last night?"

Cody didn't know what to say. Explaining the dream would be far too complicated, and Cody didn't want a stranger to know that he was so worked up regarding a figment of his imagination. He instead decided to go for the less complicated excuse.

"It was uncomfortable."

The nurse shook her head.

"Cody honey, I know its hard, but the only for you to get better is for you to endure the discomfort of putting this thing on till you're perfectly fine."

Cody looked down at his sheets again, a defeated expression on his face that made him look like a sad puppy. The nurse's steely exterior melted slightly at the sight. She wondered if it were necessary to give him such a hard time. Now feeling somewhat guilty for being so stern (all the while cursing nature for making children's sad expressions so irresistible), she sat down beside him on the bed and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You need to follow the doctor's instructions, Cody. It's tough, but it shouldn't be a problem for a future doctor lawyer in space, right?"

Cody looked up into the nurse's eyes and smiled at her reference to their friendly conversation from a day before.

"No, it's not a problem. I'm sorry."

"That's fine, sweetie." The nurse tousled his white hair playfully. Checking her watch, she pondered for a moment before standing up from the bed.

"The doctor will be in to check up on you in about five minutes. You don't need to put it on for now, but he'll probably make you do it after the checkup. Also, your mother visited this morning while you were still asleep. She told me to pass you a message that she'd be sending your brother to basketball practice, and that she'll be back soon."

Cody smiled gratefully.

"Alright. Thank you."

The nurse flashed Cody one more smile before stepping out of the room.

Cody fell back onto the bed, his head on the pillow, as he tried to recall the dream from the previous night to no avail. He was now further along the time continuum than yesterday, and only the blurred figure now stood out in his memory, all words exchanged forgotten, though he was aware that he had spoken to the figure.

Upon hearing the sound of the door opening sharply, Cody's head shot up from the bed.

"Oh, thank God you're alive!"

A blur rushed into the room, and before Cody could discern the identity of his impromptu visitor, a pair of surprisingly strong arms found their way around his torso, and a head rested firmly against his neck. Only upon hearing the shallow panting emitting from the person hugging him did he realize who it was, and he nearly exclaimed in surprise.

"Ma…Max?"

"Cody! My God, I just saw what happened in the newspapers this morning." Max unwrapped her arms from Cody's waist, and the strange sinking feeling from outside the supermarket appeared once again in his chest. He shook away the odd feeling and refocused on what Max was saying.

"I'm sorry I didn't' come earlier, I just didn't know you were involved in the fire. Damn that Zack!" Max swore, smacking her palm with her other fist. "He didn't call to tell me!"

"Max, calm down." Cody waved his hands about to get her attention. "It's not Zack's fault. Zack and Bob were waiting here for hours, and it was pretty late when they left, so they were probably too tired to call anybody. You need to chill! I'm perfectly fine."

Max stood still upon hearing Cody's words. Suddenly, a strange heat seemed to rise up to her face. Knowing that she was blushing slightly, she turned around such that Cody would not see her surprising change in demeanor from anger to embarrassment.

Why was she overreacting?

Cody remained seated cross-legged on the bed, wondering why Max had suddenly gone silent. He then decided to break the silence by explaining his condition to the girl.

"Anyway, my doctor said I'm fine. I didn't get burnt anywhere, which is good, though I did inhale some toxic fumes. They plan to keep me in here for a few days on oxygen treatment, so I'll be out of here soon enough."

Max turned back around.

"That's great, Cody!" She grinned. "I'm glad you're fine. It's just…scary, to think of how I was just having ice cream with you minutes before the fire…"

"Yeah, it really is." Cody shrugged. "I also don't know what possessed me to run in. I guess life throws you curve balls once in a while."

"Well, thank goodness you're alright."

Max couldn't resist to lean in and embrace the white-haired boy once again, whose heart nearly leapt out of his chest cavity at the sudden intimacy. Hesitantly, Cody outstretched his arms and placed them around his friend, holding her as tightly as she did him.

It was…comfortable.

Cody closed his eyes as he momentarily lost himself in euphoria.

There was the sound of a throat being cleared from the door. Eyelids shooting open, Cody immediately let go of Max, who did likewise. Both looked sheepishly at the person who had entered the room, to see Doctor Burke, who was looking slightly bemused, staring back at them through his spectacles.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted something important, but it's time for Cody's checkup." Doctor Burke directed a meaningful gaze at Max, who nodded in response. Without another word, she walked towards the door and slid out of the gap that Doctor Burke had left when he entered the room.

Ignoring the almost painful blush on Cody's cheek, Doctor Burke strode up nonchalantly to the bed and removed his stethoscope from his coat pocket. Signaling for Cody to sit up straight, he pulled up the boy's shirt and pressed the cold metal to his chest, feeling an involuntary shiver run through his body.

"Girlfriend?"

Doctor Burke heard Cody's breathing pause for an entire second through the stethoscope when he asked the question, grinning to himself at the predictability of the child. Cody stammered out his next words.

"Gi…girlfriend? No, Max isn't. I mean, she's just a friend. A girl who's a friend. So yeah I suppose you could call her a girl-friend-"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

The blush, which had faded just seconds ago, found its way back onto Cody's cheeks, now redder than before. In a particularly playful mood, Doctor Burke decided there was no harm in a little more lighthearted teasing with his young charge.

"Does your mother know?"

Cody's eyes nearly popped out of his head at the question, as before he could stop himself he was vehemently shaking his head and waving his heads about desperately.

"No, no!" Cody nearly shouted. "Mom doesn't know anything, please don't tell her! I mean, not that there's anything going on, but if she should misunderstand…"

The boy was clearly shaken. Pushing down his laughter, Doctor Burke decided that the teasing he had administered was a sufficient dose for the morning.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Doctor Burke rested a hand on Cody's shoulder. "I won't tell her anything. If you have any questions regarding this kind of thing, however, feel free to talk to me. My door is always open."

Cody was still embarrassed at the amount of attention his doctor was fixating on his 'moment' with Max, but to spare himself any more questioning, he decided to blatantly agree with the doctor's offer.

"Yes, doctor."

Doctor Burke smiled. Picking up a note the nurse had left for him on the bedside table, he studied the handwriting for a moment before speaking to Cody again.

"Well, Cody, it appears that you're in excellent shape. Your lungs have cleared much faster than we had expected." Doctor Burke beamed warmly. "In fact, we might just be able to discharge you this afternoon."

Cody, upon hearing the good news, was excited.

"Really?"

"Yep. Also, regarding the fire and your involvement in it," Doctor Burke placed the note back on the table and squatted down such that he was at Cody's eye level. "I understand that you were trying to be a Good Samaritan, and I'm glad it worked out so well, but please place more regard on your own safety next time."

Cody nodded.

"Yes, doctor."

"Excellent." The doctor ruffled Cody's hair before standing up. "I'll be back in the afternoon with your discharge papers. You don't have to put that mask on anymore."

As the doctor opened the door to the private ward, he then turned around to face Cody once again.

"By the way, I like the hair. It suits you."

He then left, leaving Cody behind with a bewildered expression on his face.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong> – I apologize for the late update, but I'm afraid updates can only come about once a week now thanks to school. Hopefully you guys are still reading this fic.

As some might have observed the fic would entirely just fixate on the Messiah complex. I'll be tying in various mini storylines which will all eventually meet in the climax of the story, so keep checking back for updates to keep up with the story.

For those not satisfied with the "no-Zack" in this chapter, I promise that he'll be a pretty darn important character in the next chapter. Just to give you Zack-a-holics something to look forward to.

Reviews appreciated and desired.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	6. Chapter 5

**Messiah – Chapter 5**

"You two are never getting out of my sight again, you hear me? I'm going to be keeping tabs on you all the time from now on."

Zack and Cody groaned collectively at the babying their mother was forcing once again onto her sons. Though Cody had received a clean bill of health from his doctor, his mother's overly potent maternal compulsions haven't yet faded. As the trio slowly made their way towards the front doors of the hospital, Carey rested one hand on each of her two sons' heads, determined never to let go of them again.

"Mom, please." Cody nearly begged. "I already said I'm sorry for risking my life. Please don't punish me anymore!"

"That's right, mom." Zack pouted. "Just because Cody can't judge what is dangerous or not for himself doesn't mean I can't too. He's the baby, not me!"

He then dodged Cody's arm, which swung into his view.

"I know, I know." Carey then pulled her sons into hugs, causing them to blush in embarrassment at the bemused eyes of the people waiting in the hospital lobby. "It's just that after what happened with you," she stared severely into Cody's eyes. "I was reminded of how important you two are to me."

Zack blanched at the corniness of the moment, while Cody, the perpetually more sensitive and polite twin, responded to his mother in kind.

"That's really sweet, mom. We love you too."

He then planted a tiny kiss on his mother's cheek, making Zack screw up his face in disgust.

"Ew…we are far too old for that."

Carey, looking much more happy now, stood up properly again as she led the two boys out of the hospital. Zack and Cody began a quiet squabble between themselves, out of their mother's earshot.

"Momma's boy."

"Insensitive pig."

"Annoying twat."

Carey pushed open the doors to the hospital, where the squabble where broken prematurely by a wave of flashing lights that momentarily blinded the trio. Shielding his eyes of his hands, Zack cringed at the discomfort his eyeballs were experiencing.

"What the…"

The flashes stopped. Bright spots still in his vision, Cody squinted from beneath his eyelids and was surprised at the sight that stood before him. Upon the clearing of the fuzziness from their eyes, Carey and Zack gave similar astonished expressions.

"Mr Martin?"

Befuddled, both Cody and Zack nodded blankly. The man, one amidst the hoard of many, grinned somewhat sheepishly before pointing at the twin with the white hair.

"I'm actually referring to Mr Cody Martin."

Almost simultaneously, hands were stuck into jacket breast pockets and tags, similar to the one around Estelle Willick's neck, were exposed to the mother and sons, who stood rooted to the ground, flabbergasted at the sudden attack from the press. Free hands were then offered to the targeted, a few of the attacks landing on the mother and her blond son, while the majority found their way to the white haired boy that was to make the news again the next day.

"Washington Times."

"Beacon Hill News."

"Boston Irish Reporter."

Cody, still stunned by the ambush, merely shook the uncountable outstretched hands in front of him and nodded blankly. Upon the withdrawal of the hands, microphones were then placed in front of Cody's mouth before he could protest. The blinding flashes of light began yet again.

As Cody struggled to find words, Carey and Zack stood at the side and stared stupefied, unsure of what to do next.

* * *

><p>It had been 2 days since Cody's discharge from the hospital, and though he was enjoying his rest time at home, as well as being able to have his mother cater to every little whim, the inner nerd (or more appropriately named "intellectually gifted individual") within himself refused to let his idle brain slacken any further. His medical leave from school was to last a week, however after much begging Carey had finally allowed Cody to return to school the next day, much to Zack's exasperation.<p>

"You're crazy!" Zack shook his head in disbelief as he chewed on a peanut butter sandwich, his words slightly muffled at the butter agglutinating his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "I would pay, no…_kill_ to get more free time off school!"

"Well, I can't possible sit around for an entire week." Cody responded as he packed his bag for the next day's lessons. "Imagine how far behind I would be. I've already lost a few days, I've probably already got a backlog of work already…"

"You're crazy, Cody. I know you're already one month ahead for homework. Don't try to deny it!"

Zack shoved a threatening finger to his twin's chest.

"I'm not! That's ridiculous!"

Cody then saw the look of utter nihilism on Zack's face and sighed, defeated.

"Alright, alright, _fine_. But so what if I am?"

"I'm just saying you need to give yourself some leeway, Codes!" Zack finished his sandwich and dusted off the crumbs from his fingers to the bedroom floor, much to Cody's horror. "You need to learn how to take a break once in a while. I mean, it's been a while since we went out together to pick up girls. All you ever do these days is bury your nose in your books!"

"Zack, at some point you'll realize we're _twelve_, and that there's no way us trying to go out to pick up girls will amount to anything."

Cody shook his head mockingly, but froze when he saw the look of sheer dismay on his brother's face. Zack's eyes were bulging wide, and his jaw was completely slack, nearly falling to the ground. Realizing that he was going against all that his brother had ever believed in, Cody waved his hands desperately in front of Zack's face.

"No, no, I was joking! Joking, Zack! Doing that definitely amounts to something!"

Zack's face morphed into one of anger, and he crossly hit Cody's shoulder with his left fist, prompting a small "ow" from the younger boy.

"Don't joke about that, ever!"

Still slightly amused at his brother's reaction towards girls, Cody apologized, partly in jest.

"You're right, you're right. Sorry, Zack."

Zack took a few comical seconds to close his eyes and calm his breathing, before speaking again.

"Anyway…you really need to learn to take a break once in a while."

"I thought we had a good arrangement going, Zack. You do all the slacking while I do all the studying and the being successful."

"Ha ha." Zack hopped onto the bed, watching his brother continue with his packing. Then, he appeared to have remembered something, and sat cross-legged on the bed, now significantly more serious than before. Even by watching his brother packing his bag, he could see the unresolved tension in his brother's back and arms.

Something was up.

"I need to talk to you about something, Codes."

Cody, sensing the rapid change in Zack's tone, sat his bag down on the floor and looked up at him.

"After we left the hospital, you've been…deep in thought. It seems like every day after I come back from school you're sitting on the bed thinking. Plus, you're really quiet nowadays! Is something wrong?"

Cody didn't know what to say. He didn't expect his brother to be this perceptive. A part of him longed to tell Zack about the dream of which most of the details he had already forgotten, but he didn't want to be mocked.

"Codes?"

"Er…well, it's just that..." Cody spluttered, trying to find words. Not wanting his brother to think he was crazy, he racked his brain for a reason. Eventually his brain settled on a random word, which he blurted out.

"Bullies!"

Zack now raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"Bullies?"

"Yes, bullies!" Cody quickly strung together a explanation, which after he said it he realized was somewhat true. "I'm a little afraid of going back to school again because of…well, you know…Drew."

Zack growled a little at the sound of the all-too-familiar name.

"He's still picking on you? That rat bastard!"

It was Cody's turn to raise his eyebrows at Zack's swearing.

"Right, firstly, don't let mom hear you say that. Secondly, yes he has. He usually gets me in between classes."

Zack leapt off the bed, concerned. His brother had recently begun an annoying tendency to hide things from him, and he didn't like it.

"What does he do?"

Slightly taken aback by the worry obvious in Zack's voice, Cody blushed.

"Just…typical bully stuff, you know? Chinese burns, noogies, wedgies-"

Zack cut him off.

"He gives you wedgies?"

Cody was now growing more and more uncomfortable.

"Sometimes. In fact he once…"

Zack narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"He _what?_"

Cody chocked out his next sentence.

"He left me hanging by my underwear in the washroom."

Zack froze, and then exploded in anger, roaring.

"HE'S DEAD MEAT!"

"Zack!" Cody grabbed Zack's shoulders urgently to shut him up. "Mom's asleep! You'll wake her!"

"I'm going to kill him! Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Zack was now shaking with fury.

"I didn't think it was a big deal! I mean, you give me wedgies all the time!"

"I was just messing around, and those were practically nothing!" Zack spoke in screamed whispers. "I would never do anything to hurt you like he did!"

"Okay, okay…" Cody rubbed his thumbs in a clockwise motion around Zack's shoulders in an attempt to calm him. "I get it. You're pissed. Just…calm down for a second."

Cody waited for Zack's breathing to slow before speaking again.

"I can take care of myself, Zack."

"I swear to God, if he hurts you again-"

"He won't. I'll take care of it."

"How?"

Cody shrugged.

"I haven't thought about it yet. But please…don't frustrate yourself over this, okay? It's no big deal. Really."

Zack looked hesitant, but thankfully decided to let the matter slide for the meantime.

"Alright, but if he hurts you again," Zack pointed his index finger straight at Cody. "You had better tell me."

"I promise."

"Good."

The two twins stood staring at each other. Upon realizing that they had shared their second particularly brotherly moment over the past few days, both twins felt slightly embarrassed. Cody settled with squatting down to continue packing his bag, while Zack ran his hand over his hair in an expression of seeming nonchalance. Remembering what their conversation before his outburst had been about, Zack decided to try again to let his brother give himself a break.

"You know, if you want to you can join Bob and I for some skateboarding after school tomorrow. We were thinking about hitting the skate park for about an hour."

Cody looked up at his brother's earnest eyes and pondered the sensibility of the decision. Zack was right, he was a month ahead of homework, and it wouldn't hurt to have a little fun after being stuck in the suite for two days…

"You know what, Zack?" Cody smiled. "I think I'll take you up on your offer."

Zack fist pumped the air in victory.

* * *

><p>Barry Farber, one of the many photographers hired by the Boston Herald, sat silently and watched as his assigned reporter blew off steam behind the desk in her cubicle. As she scanned an article that had appeared in the latest edition of the Boston Irish Reporter, she swore loudly before crushing the paper into pulp with her bony fingers, tossing the offending newspaper into the tiny pile of other newspapers that had formed behind the desk.<p>

He was used to the familiar sight of his boss on one of her usual constrained tempers, and to some extent he felt sorry for the woman.

Breathing heavily, Estelle flicked her lighter and lit a cigarette hanging limply from her lips. As the nicotine flooded into her lungs, her breathing slowed and she managed to find some of her graces again. It took a few more puffs before she was able to speak again.

"Why do they treat me like trash, Barry?"

Barry looked up at Estelle, his camera dangling from his neck.

"Time and again they don't give my work the credit its due, and now the same content is on the front pages of what, _five _newspapers I've read now?"

Estelle groaned as she massaged her temple.

"I hate this fucking newspaper."

"It gave you a job."

"Yes, in fucking _human interest_. After all the effort I put into hunting for content and writing perfect articles they shove me into this obscure department which nearly nobody ever reads."

Barry couldn't argue with that. After working with the woman for nearly two years now, he couldn't deny that she was a writer of a far greater caliber than what the Herald assumes her to be. Removing the unfinished cigarette from her lips, Estelle dropped it on the floor and extinguished the flame with her heel before snatching another up and lighting it.

"I swear to God, Barry, if I didn't need money to survive I would leave this damn place and just write a book or something."

Barry raised his eyebrow.

"Aren't you already working on that?"

"Yes, yes, but I can't spend too much time on it with this job. And even I slave and slave to put the best shit on their plates those head office bigwigs refuse to pay attention. How many times have I written an article that turned out to be worth much more on other newspapers?"

Estelle snatched up one of the crumpled papers and showed its front page to her photographer.

"Boy Hero saves girl in solo rescue mission. _I swear to God."_

She threw the paper back into its pile.

"I had to collect details from the public at the scene, interview the kids at the hospital, and personally ask for a short interview with mayor, and they keep me in _human interest_?"

Barry could nearly see the cartoon steam lines emitted from Estelle as her blood boiled internally.

"Front page. Nearly five years I've been writing for them, and still they don't think I'm anywhere close to that level?"

"I'm sure your chance will come soon enough."

She removed the cigarette from her mouth and scoffed.

"Yeah, if God really exists."

* * *

><p>"I still can't believe you refused to spend the next few days resting at home, Cody. You really should."<p>

"Thank you!" Zack threw up his arms, pleased at finally having someone agree with him. "That's exactly what I've been telling him!"

"Guys, please." Cody shook his head at Max and his brother, not wanting to explain his reasons to them again. "We've already been through this."

The three continued talking as they walked down the busy streets of Boston. It was the morning rush hour, and there was innumerous cars ferrying innumerous passengers desperately trying to reach their occupational venues on time. The sound of car-horns and shouting filled the air as the three pre-teens walked, already desensitized to the noise thanks to years of living in the busy city.

After ten minutes of walking the trio finally arrived at the final ninety-degree turn that was to take them to their destination. Buckner Middle School was a respectable public school, one of the many institutions described by the Mayor as a host to the "Boston Education System", where "good values are pushed forward to students alongside academic curriculum,", to quote a certain article.

"Here we are."

"Finally, I'm back."

Though he was glad to return to school, there was still a twinge of uneasiness in Cody's gut. He was a complete novice at hiding his emotions, as Zack immediately picked up on his twin's apprehension and halted his footsteps, causing the other two to similarly stop and look back at him.

"Zack, what's wrong?"

"No, _you _tell me what's wrong." Zack folded his arms and looked at his brother. "And don't try to pretend nothing is bothering you."

"Huh?"

"You're scared of something! It's plastered all over your face."

_Damn_, Cody swore internally. Despite being a nearly completely unperceptive person, Zack did have his moments of perceptive lucidity. They unfortunately struck at the most inappropriate moments.

He nearly leapt as he felt Max's hand suddenly appear on his shoulder.

"Cody, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong."

Zack frowned.

"You're lying again."

Cody scowled.

"Alright, _fine_." Cody shifted his feet uncomfortably. "I was just thinking about…Drew again."

Zack clenched his fists, while Max scowled.

"He really needs to stop picking on you."

Zack's eyes widened before he glared at his brother.

"She knows? You told her but you didn't care enough to tell your own brother?"

"She was there when he did it once!" Cody nearly shrank at the poisonous gaze Zack was throwing him. "Max has more classes with me than you do, anyway, so it's not surprising that she knows."

"Right. Anyway, if he picks on you again, just tell me and I'll set things straight."

"I'll help too." Max flashed Cody an encouraging smile. "That guys needs to learn how to grow up and stop being such a jerk."

Cody felt warmth spreading through his torso.

"Thanks, guys. I appreciate it."

Finally, the school came into view. What they didn't expect, however, was the congregation of students waiting at the entrance, talking loudly amongst themselves. What surprised them most was the fact that there were teachers present amongst the crowd.

"What's going on?"

Cody and Max both shrugged at Zack's question. Realizing that there was only one way to find out, they advanced closer to the school.

"There he is!"

All three perked up at the shout and looked around at their surroundings, expecting to see a celebrity or VIP approaching. It took them more time to realize that the congregation, which had already expanded to nearly a hundred students, was looking directly at _them_.

"Huh?"

Almost instantaneously, the air rang out with thunderous applause and caterwauling. Students of all grades and ages that they had never seen or met before were standing at the entrance, clapping and shouting. Completely blindsided by the attention, they three stood rooted to the ground till Max finally understood the circumstance and broke into a large grin.

"Cody! They're here for you!"

Cody merely stared.

"Huh?"

"You're on all the newspapers because of the fire. It's obvious that everyone will treat you like a hero now!"

Gasping like a fish out of water, Cody couldn't resist as Max placed a hand on his back and pushed him forward.

"Soak it up, man, soak it up!"

Zack finally caught on, and copied Max's actions.

"That's right, little bro. You deserve it."

Finally finding his legs again, Cody took a few cautious steps forward as the crowd cheered at his approach. Before he could react he was pulled into the suffocating gaggle of people, garnering numerous pats on his back and shaking countless outstretched hands, all the students eager to meet the boy who had put his life on the line for another.

And so it began.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong> – I'm typing this chapter as a bit of a rush job as I realize I haven't posted anything in nearly two weeks. I don't want to lose the attention of my devoted readers, so I apologize if this chapter seemed a bit rushed.

To the readers who are getting a little jumpy at the lack of proper action, I apologize, but must insist that I lay out the groundwork/foundation for the text before I can properly incorporate more action-based scenes. Expect one within the next few chapters.

After writing out a plan for the story (I encourage all writers to try this), I realized that Messiah would stretch to a considerable number of chapters. I'm considering dividing it into three major parts, with this portion being writing now part of the first segment where Cody first discovers himself. I'll see how it works as I go along.

Reviews appreciated, and I apologize for the incredibly late update.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	7. Chapter 6

**Messiah – Chapter 6**

"Mom, we're home!"

Upon hearing the cheery voices of her sons, Carey put down the book she was reading and looked up at the door.

"Hi guys! How was school?"

Cody carefully sat down his bag next to the couch, still feeling awkward about what to say. Zack, thankfully, took the reins and provided the lead-in to their discussion.

"Well it was a typical day for me…" Zack couldn't fully conceal his grin. "But it was pretty awesome for Cody."

"Really honey? What happened?"

Zack turned around to look at his brother, waiting for him to speak, till he saw the slightly queasy look on Cody's face. Realizing that Cody probably needed more help than he had expected, he continue speaking to his mother.

"No one could keep their hands off him."

"What?" Carey then sat up straight on the couch, confused by Zack's words.

"According to Max, the fire and what happened after it is on all the newspapers of the state. The story even made it to the Washington Times. Remember when all those reporters met us outside the hospital a few days ago? Cody's face is on every major newspaper in the country. Everyone in school was shaking his hand and trying to get to know him better. Even the teachers!"

"I don't get why everyone's making such a big deal of it." Cody walked forward such that he was standing next to his brother, and shrugged. "I mean…I just went in to save that girl! I bet this happens all the time!"

Carey beamed.

"It doesn't, Cody. Come to think of it, its no wonder everyone's interested. No one in their right mind would even consider leaving a safe zone to rescue someone else in a seemingly _suicidal_ mission."

Cody smiled mockingly.

"Thanks a lot, mom."

"Honey, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have done it." Carey smiled as she stood from the couch and hugged her son. "Well, actually, you shouldn't have done it. I would have killed you if anything serious did happen to you. Do you know how worried I was? My God!"

Zack and Cody's eyes widened as their mother suddenly turned jittery, Cody's widening more as Carey squeezed his head tighter between her hands.

"Mom? Mom? Please don't kill me!"

Carey, shaken out of her momentary motherly trance, quickly let go of Cody.

"I'm sorry honey, I guess I'm still a bit caught up over the whole accident." Carey smiled sheepishly while brushing her hair out of her face. "Anyway, I'm glad you boys had a good day. We're having meatloaf for dinner. I cooked!"

"Aw man." Zack groaned while cupping his stomach dramatically. "And here I was thinking we could have had a perfect day."

The comment incited laughter from Cody and a somewhat reluctant smile from Carey, who wasn't deluded by her cooking ability.

"I didn't make it with broccoli this time!"

"We'll take your word for it, mom." Cody picked up his bag and walked towards the bedroom, before turning around. "Oh yes, we stopped by the supermarket and picked up the same hair dye that I lost that day. I'll get my blond hair back soon enough!"

"That's great, honey! Though to be honest, I was actually getting used to that white hair of yours. It actually looks pretty…"

"Cute? Yeah, that's what all the girls in school were talking about in school today." Zack chimed in, before raising his voice to a falsetto. "Did you see Cody's hair? It looks so cute on him! I know! I haven't seen a boy who has managed to pull that off except him! My God, I just want to walk up to him and smell it!"

"Enough already!" Cody nearly shouted. "It's not…_cute_! It's ugly, it's freaky, and I don't…I don't _like_ it!" Squeaking out the last sentence, Cody ashamedly turned around and slammed the bedroom door.

Zack doubled over in laughter at his brother's reaction to his teasing, while Carey shook her head exasperatedly, despite her amusement at the situation.

"You really need to learn to stop teasing your brother."

"It's all I live for." Zack grinned, before falling butt-first onto the couch and putting his feet up onto the table, causing Carey to fold her arms sternly.

* * *

><p>"I'm back."<p>

Cody would have screamed at the top of his lungs if not for the hand that clamped his mouth shut, not allowing sound to properly escape from his oral cavity.

"Don't scream. You don't want to wake up so quickly."

Angrily, Cody shook away the hand from his mouth and turned around to face what he knew was standing right behind him.

"You again!"

"That's right." The Figure couldn't help but smile. "It's nice to see you too."

Cody charged at the Figure, attempting to knock him over, but was stopped by a palm on his head, pushing him backwards.

"Don't try anything silly, Cody."

"Why do you keep…_bugging me_?"

"The only reason why I meet you sometimes is because I can give you more information." The Figure held out his bait, his words ringing sonorously through the air. "I trust you want to understand more?"

Cody stopped, ashamed at the fact that he was allowing himself to be taunted by the Figure in exchange for information.

"Fine. Just tell me what you can tell me, and go away and let me sleep in peace."

"Hang on, little buddy." Cody bristled at the comment. "I was hoping we could have a nice talk. You don't mind, do you?"

Biting at his lip to stop himself from shouting, Cody shook his head.

"That's good." The Figure placed his hand on Cody's head, the limb almost being immediately brushed off by the indignant boy underneath it. "I trust you understand what I meant that day?"

"What?"

"I was talking about something significant after the fire." The Figure smiled. "Remember?"

It took a few seconds for Cody to clear his head. Days of freedom from the Figure in his dreams had left him confused as to what was reality and what was not.

"I remember." Cody spoke slowly. "But you were being incredibly vague, as usual. I still don't understand."

"Perhaps I could help with that. How was your day today at school?"

Cody was surprised by the inquiry.

"It was…fine, I suppose."

"It was good, wasn't it? How was it different from your usual days at school?"

The Figure's point finally dawned onto Cody.

"Everyone was…paying attention. Everyone was paying attention to me because of the fire."

"_Précisément, _young man." The Figure beamed. "You catch on fast."

Cody's analytical skills were now emerging despite his distaste for the game the Figure was playing with him.

"Something's still not clear." Cody pondered as he rubbed his chin. "Why is this attention significant? I know its true that I'm now getting noticed by everybody, but why would your…God want that?"

"Like I said before, God makes the decisions." The Figure smiled. "God's will is definite."

For the first time, Cody didn't feel like bringing up the fact that he was an atheist.

"Perhaps the hair contributed to the attention."

Cody was blindsided by the comment.

"What?"

"The hair." As he spoke, the Figure ran his hand through Cody's scalp, letting some of his fringe flip over his eyes. "It's significant, don't you think? A young boy saves a girl from a burning building that everyone else deems to be inescapable from. The obstacle blocking the entrance disappears. A miracle. The boy emerges, a head full of hair that glows and reflects the sun's blinding rays. A cogent, compelling physical symbol."

Cody could feel himself shaking.

"It reminds people of something."

Trembling, Cody looked up at the Figure.

"This hair…is highly significant to God's will."

Cody's mouth was dry. He swallowed painfully.

"You really should read the Bible."

The Figure's hand shifted from his head to his nose. Somehow Cody knew exactly what he was going to say.

"Don't let it take over you."

* * *

><p>Gasping like a fish out of water, Cody returned to the physical universe, grasping his blankets tightly as he sat up straight from his position lying down on the bed. The dream, out of the three he had had regarding the unidentifiable Figure, seemed the most significant of all, the main difference being the fact that this one refused to fade.<p>

_Attention…hair…significant!_

Cody had never felt more terrified in his life.

Stealing a glance over at the adjacent bed and realizing that his brother was still snoring lightly, Cody decided to try and finish things once and for all. The connection between his dreams and reality was finally far too strong, too compelling, to ignore.

He didn't want it anymore.

Leaping off his bed and landing quietly on the carpeted floor, Cody half-walked, half-ran out of the bedroom. Checking to make sure his mother was asleep, Cody ran straight into the bathroom and picked up the plastic bag he had left sitting next to the bathtub, waiting for him to utilize the product within it.

Hands shaking slightly, Cody stuck his right hand into the bag and withdrew a bottle of blond hair dye. Ripping open the cardboard box, Cody extracted the cylinder of artificially pigmented color and tossed the box into the bin. Then, slapping himself on the head, he removed the box from the trash and turned it around, looking for instructions to remind him on how to use the blessed chemical.

"Put on protective gloves…" Cody read out to himself as he hastily snapped on the gloves provided with the box. "Apply Vaseline or lip balm to hairline and ears to prevent staining…"

There was thankfully already lip balm waiting for him beside the sink. Cody snatched up the tube and smeared an excess over areas where he didn't want the dye to touch.

Cody, working at a rapid pace, for the next few minutes, carried out the process elaborated on the box. Finally, with the dye coating all of his hair, Cody sat down on the edge of the bathtub and breathed heavily, exhausted.

"5 more minutes…"

Cody sat waiting as the dye began to adhere to his silvery white hair, glad that his actions would finally put him out of the confusion that he had been in for the past few days.

_Finally_…

Without realizing how tired he was, Cody slowly felt his eyelids drooping, and within three fast minutes he was on the floor, snoring lightly, dye forgotten.

* * *

><p>It was four hours later when Cody woke up, finally stirred awake by the cold bathroom floor pressing against his skin. Disoriented, he struggled to his feet, confused at how he had gotten to the bathroom.<p>

"What the…"

He then accidentally cracked his shin against the bathtub, causing him to yelp and bend over, rubbing his sore leg with his palm

"That's going to leave a bruise…"

The pain forced him back to reality, his cognitive abilities gaining ground again as the fogginess in his head cleared slowly. Grabbing onto the sink, Cody gave his head a final shake and looked at himself in the mirror.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head as a wide smile took shape on his face.

_It's back!_

Sweet, sweet golden blond hair.

His original hair color was back, and though he was initially baffled at the return of the yellowish pigments, he then remembered what had happened a few hours ago. He then realized, to his horror, that he had left the dye sitting on his head for the past four hours as he was snoozing on the floor.

Praying that no permanent damage had been done, Cody snatched up the cardboard box. Only one final instruction remained. Stripping off his clothes, Cody leapt into the shower and turned it on, ignoring the freezing cold water as he ran his hands through his blond hair to wash off the excess dye.

Drying himself off with a towel, Cody hopped out of the shadow, enthusiastic at the fact that he was now, as he had desired, back to normal.

He then looked at the mirror.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

_No…_

Running his hands slowly through his hair, Cody's featured slowly morphed from happiness to abhorrence.

_No!_

He snatched up the box and reread the instructions, praying that he had just forgotten an instruction. He hadn't.

Slowly, he looked back up into the mirror again, and stared into his own eyes, which were now filled with insurmountable dismay.

Above his eyes was a fringe of silvery white.

* * *

><p>Creeping back to the bedroom, he poked his head through the gap in the door and realized that Zack was still asleep, without a doubt in a dream that involved a certain candy counter girl, as revealed by the extensively big smile on his face. Shutting the door quietly behind him, Cody tried to steady his shaking legs as he sat back down, cross-legged, on his bed.<p>

The dream from the previous night was still stuck firmly to the inner walls of his brain.

Cody then pulled out the laptop that his mother had gotten him for his birthday and turned it on. While waiting for the system to start up, Cody buried his head in his hands as he tried to think.

_Why the hell is this happening?_

Now that he actually remembered the dream, he was now more afraid than ever. Shuddering as he realized the implications of what the "Figure" had mentioned in his dreams, he started to speak to himself yet again, methodologically listing out important points that he had remembered. Almost as though he was reading from a diary of his previous dreams, contents of the initial two dreams were now almost perfectly clear in his memory.

"Fire…accident…hair…significant."

He rubbed his eyes as he struggled to remember more.

"God's will…Bible…_power_."

The last word stood out particularly well. Cody removed his hands from his face and looked at the computer screen with red eyes.

"Power…power…"

_What else?_

The login screen had come on. Just before Cody's fingers touched the keyboard, a final line, ringing more resonantly through his head than all the rest, sounded out, spoken in the voice of the entranced, Cody repeated the words.

"Don't let it…take over you."

_What the hell does that mean?_

"Don't let it take over you."

Cody typed in his password and waited as the laptop continued its boot-up.

"Don't let it take over you."

He clicked on Firefox.

"Don't let it take over you."

Already knowing what he was planning to search for, Cody typed in his search query and allowed Google to do its trick. He clicked on the first link he saw, at the top of the list of websites. Scanning through the webpage, he searched desperately for any hint that he was right.

He was disappointed.

Pressing the "back" button, he then returned to the list and opened multiple tabs at once, almost certain that he would finally find proof for his suspicions.

To his dismay, he drew a nearly complete blank.

"_The myth that extreme stress can turn your hair grey or white overnight has been around for a long time. But there's not a single shred of scientific research to back it up."_

"_"It's appealing on a literary or poetic level that a person's experience could be so severe or terrifying that they age overnight," he says. "But you can't lose pigment in your hair. Once it leaves your scalp, it's non-living; it's dead."_

_No…No!_

"_Let's concentrate on "overnight". Just like in the cartoons? There is no scientific evidence that hair can turn white overnight due to some traumatic experience."_

"_According to professionals such as dermatologists and other physicians, there is NO disease or disorder that will cause the hair to go white overnight."_

Falling into his pillow, Cody slowly closed his laptop and placed it gently on the ground next to his bed. He then proceeded to stare up at the ceiling, his mind completely blank, wiped clear by the confirmation that he had just received.

_White hair overnight isn't possible._

_My God._

Cody shoved his hands into his face yet again as he muffled a scream beneath his palms.

* * *

><p>The early morning streets of Boston, Massachusetts, were already bustling with energy at seven in the morning, despite the fact that it was a Saturday. Cars were already on the road, taking their masters to their locations of desire, while the sidewalks were gradually filling up with people from all walks of life, hurrying to their destinations.<p>

Amidst the crowd walked a particularly flustered boy of age twelve, wearing a pair of brown Bermudas, a green-striped T-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker. His hair, white as cotton, was disheveled and unkempt, the ordinarily neat bowl cut now fluttering about messily in the wind.

It was therefore expected that some passer-bys would take notice of the boy, especially since he had been on the newspapers of every newspaper in the state just the previous day before. As Cody walked, fingers were pointed and gasps were audibly heard, as the head of white drew the attention of the public.

"Isn't that the kid that saved the girl?"

"Yeah…I think that's him! That Cody Martin boy!"

"Wow…he's so young!"

Cody tried his best to ignore the chattering around him as he focused his attention on his path towards his desired destination. Convinced that Internet resources aren't particularly reliable, he was on his way to the Boston Public Library, in the hopes of finding literature that would prove that his original suspicions were founded and credible.

As he walked, he continued his conversation with himself in his head.

_Why else would my hair turn white overnight?_

_Am I too stressed?_

_No, no, all the websites said that that's not a possible cause!_

_Then what else could it be?_

_Could the dream possibly be…_

_No, no._ Cody didn't allow himself to belief what he refused to accept. _There is no way the dreams meant anything._

Without warning, he then stopped in his tracks.

His mind turned completely blank.

Turning his head to the right, he looked out into the busy street, and saw a sight that both stunned and terrified him.

A girl.

Lying on the road.

A speeding car, headed right towards her.

The fog, the mist with eerie clarity from the fire, was back.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note – <strong>That was fun to write! Alright, I might as well use this Author's Note to address some of the comments I've received. Firstly, thank you very much to all that have commented on the story thus far, you guys encourage me to keep writing on and I'm very appreciative of that. To Long Story and all commentators and readers, if you want a clear picture of how Cody looks, think of the first season of TSLOZAC. That's how he looked like when he was twelve, and this is how he looks like in the story. Also, it should be noted that though the first season was set in about 2005, this story is set about five to six years ahead, in order to bring a particularly important date closer to my story's context. Take this as a hint towards the big picture(insert wink here).

This chapter came a little earlier, so hopefully this will tide you guys over till the next weekend. I'm sure I'll be unable to find time to write till then (whether I find time for next weekend is still unsure). Don't be discouraged by my lack of updating, and keep checking back. I promise more.

This chapter encompassed a little bit of internal struggle and conflict, which is essentially a lead on to the small amount of action in the next chapter. If you guys want another teaser, Estelle will be making an important return very soon.

The website quotes are from real websites, and are not by me. If you want to find them, type in "white hair overnight" in Google. I assure you they are there.

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	8. Chapter 7

**Messiah – Chapter 7**

_(Author's pre-chapter note: This chapter is complex and might be a tad hard to understand. I urge all readers to read slowly and try to picture everything in your mind's eye such that the scenarios I'm plotting out won't appear too blurry. I decided to use a different writing technique for this chapter. This note will be deleted after the release of chapter 8.)_

Scoop.

A colloquial term for an exclusive news story promising much sensationalism, a delivery package of accentuated words from the newspaper to the thousands who read it, corralled like cattle, eager to brighten up their dull pre-workplace mornings with a shade of non-self excitement.

People living in first world societies depend on a consistent flow of information into their natural processing systems. The extent of the thirst for information has stretched to the point that it is no longer feasible for most to be disconnected from social networking sites, news feeds and broadcasts, and the various other forms of media that serve as informational entertainment, keeping the world connected at the push of a finger or a click of a mouse button.

It is the twenty-first century. Never before has mankind thirsted for something more than nourishment, religion, or currency.

It is the information age.

There are lessons to be learnt in mankind's quest for notifications. Information is powerful, impactful, and potentially life changing. Information spreads, and when it spreads, it spreads fast. Information acts very much like fire, a remarkable tool unlike any other, but also a double-edged sword should one not understand how to use it properly.

We sit as pawns on the information chessboard, waiting, seeking for instructions, moving as commanded.

The story proceeds.

* * *

><p>An adrenaline rush is the fight or flight response of the adrenal gland, in which it releases adrenaline, a hormone used to trigger the release of dopamine, a natural painkiller. Cody Martin, temporary celebrity and local boy hero, was no stranger to the effects of the "miracle drug", having experienced its effects after nearly dying in a colossal fire that consumed most of the block where it had sparked.<p>

However, very much like pain, there was no way to get used to the effects of an adrenaline rush.

Cody felt momentarily blinded as he involuntarily made a rapid dash to the end of the pavement closest to the road, instinctively swerving around the hoards of people who yelped and leapt out of the way at the sight of the white-haired youngster running right towards them. His speed, blindingly fast for such a young boy, was matched by the vehicle that threatened to commit vehicular homicide, speeding quickly towards the girl who was lying at the center of the road.

The scenario, to any passer-by who had observed the situation, was movie-like to the utmost possible extent.

Time had slowed.

Even amidst his involuntary and suicidal dash, Cody could almost comically think clearly to himself. No description of his mind's eye would be sufficient for anyone to picture, however the closest the narrator could go would be to say that two consciousnesses appeared to exist at that point in time.

The first dictated Cody's natural consciousness, the nonphysical object that gave him identity as a sentient being and gave him the ability to make decisions and think rationally. The second dictated an unknown presence, overriding his natural consciousness to some extent by disallowing him to stop his suicidal dash.

Right now, the two were in equilibrium.

Even as Cody ran head first into the deadly situation, his brain operated separately from his leg muscles and observed his surroundings, which thanks to the momentary retardation of time, was a simple task. His eyes scanned the area, his mind somehow zooming into minute details like a powerful camera lens might.

The girl, dressed in a pink blouse and skirt, was lying on the ground, seemingly comatose. The faint rising and falling of her chest told Cody that she was still very much alive. Her watch, a Disney analog time-telling device, ticked slowly and steadily. Her spectacles, wide-rimmed with black frames, were lying next to her on the ground, already shattered into pieces from the fall that Cody assumed she had taken.

The driver of the speeding vehicle, though still a slight distance away, was in perfect view of Cody's heightened visual sense. A hand was clutching over the breast pocket of the man's jacket, a painful grimace apparent on his face, the other arm (his left) lying uselessly beside him on the seat. A quick extraction of medical knowledge from Cody's brain told him that the man was almost definitely having a heart attack.

Almost maddeningly, Cody's brain took in other snippets of information that were useless to the circumstance. The ground had not been paved for years, its disrepair apparent by the uneven texture of the tar and rocks that made up its foundation. About ten meters away, a malfunctioning street light continued blinking despite the fact that the sun had been out for the past three and a half hours. Cody's eyes also took in the faces of the dozens of people who had noticed the impending collision and cared enough to stop and gasp, their expressions comically frozen by time.

No matter how he looked at it, the situation seemed dire and practically un-savable.

He wasn't, however, going to be disappointed by lack of try.

His blood pumping furiously through his legs, Cody finally reached the end of the pavement, and without any hesitation, stepped out into the danger zone. Greeting him was a white sedan that appeared rapidly from the side, it's driver desperately honking as the vehicle screamed for the suicidal youngster to move out of his way.

Cody moved, and the vehicle swerved harmlessly forward.

It was a busy road.

Cody's next step saw him nearly getting pummeled by a motorbike that had seemingly pulled a potter and apparated out of thin air, its engine revving angrily as it accelerated forward, its driver not heeding the presence of the youngster at all. Just when the passer-bys on the sidewalks covered their mouths in preparation for the bloodshed from the collision, those hands fell limply from the mouths to the side of their owners, as their eyes widened at what they were seeing.

Cody, just about to get jammed in the stomach by the streamlined vehicle, gripped the right handlebar of the motorcycle just as it neared him, and used it to _flip_ himself diagonally over the helmeted head of the irresponsible driver, the latter's eyes nearly popping out of the helmet's visor as Cody landed, unharmed, behind the black motorbike.

Stunned by what he had just experienced, the motorcyclist didn't realize the pavement in front of him and run up the curb, shocking the strangers on the street as they scattered, like a herd of wild geese, away from the vehicle, which flipped over as it struck a fire hydrant, its driver thankfully standing up from the downed, damaged motorbike, shaken but escaping with a few mere bruises.

There was no time for jubilation at Cody's survival, no time for uproar or applause. A more pressing issue was at hand, and none of the people on the streets were capable of doing anything more than staring and praying for the safety of the girl lying unconscious right in the dead center of the street.

Almost immediately upon his landing back onto the road, Cody's legs went straight back into fluid motion, traversing the few remaining bounds needed for him to reach his desired location at the center of the road. Time still passing remarkably slowly in front of his eyes, Cody squatted down beside the comatose girl and tapped her cheek urgently in an attempt to wake her.

Her eyelids fluttered slightly before shutting completely again.

The car neared the two planted precariously on the road, its driver still struggling with the pain in his chest and his foot that refused to lift itself off the accelerator.

Cody then realized there was only one way to minimize the casualties in the impending accident, which was going to happen whether he liked it or not.

* * *

><p>"For God's sake, Barry, hurry the hell up!"<p>

"Estelle, I'm the one holding this heavy camera. Spare me your grief for a few minutes."

The duo of human-interest press members, hired by the Boston Herald, were making their hasty way along the streets of Boston to their next destination, where their next news item supposedly awaited them.

"I swear to God, if Nancy was pulling another fast one on me-"

"I'm sure she wasn't." Barry was trying his best to maintain his patience while swerving through crowds of people lugging a large camera on his neck and a tripod in his hand. "Let's just get to the place quickly, get the scoop, and get out of there."

"It's no big deal, now that I think about it." Estelle mumbled under her breath. "Just a typical boring story about food poisoning at a school cafeteria. News like that is old hat."

"But people still read anything that has to do with kids. At least give Nancy that credit for her information."

"The day I give Nancy any credit, my dear Barry," Estelle laughed scornfully as she lit up another cigarette, "Is the day where she finally gives us a fricking budget for transport so we don't have to walk to every damn place where there's scoop."

The pair fell back into silence as they continued making their way to the destination. Upon hearing the sound of shouts from a distance away, they halted their footsteps. Estelle removed the cigarette from her lips and frowned.

"What the hell was that?"

Barry searched for signs of a commotion.

"I don't see anyth…wait, up ahead!"

The duo took a few hasty steps forward along the pavement, and was taken aback by the congregation that had appeared in the middle of the sidewalk. A group of passer-bys, attracted by something on the road, had stopped their mindless walks to their respective destinations, and was now instead watching the road as though it were a live show.

Estelle tapped the shoulder of one man and saw him turn around.

"Hi, Boston Herald." Estelle flashed her set of pearly white teeth and her Press lanyard dangling around her neck. "What's going on here?"

The man, though initially confused by her presence, pointed towards the center of the road.

"Some girl passed out while she was trying to cross the road, and there's incoming traffic."

Barry placed his camera to his eyes and activated the zoom function, obtaining a clear image of the girl lying comatose from a distance away.

"It's true, she's there." He spoke. "Doesn't seem like anyone's trying to help her though."

"Damn." Estelle swore under her breath. "That's the problem with people these days, isn't it? They care too much about themselves."

Barry stayed silent, wondering how hypocritical Estelle would be if they were closer to the area where the girl lay. Looking at the crowd that had gathered a safe distance away from the area, Barry wondered if the people were standing so far away to avoid being caught up in the situation.

As he was looking through his viewfinder, an image caught his eye. A bright streak of white dashed past the camera lens before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

_What?_

Expertly finding the appropriate button with his well-accustomed fingers, Barry reduced the zoom on his camera and directed it towards where he had last focused on. What he saw made him blink.

"Erm…"

Estelle looked back at her loyal photographer.

"What?"

"I think I just saw…"

Barry squinted his eyes.

"Saw what? Speak up!"

"Wait…"

Barry twiddled with a few of the knobs on his camera, and finally got a clear picture of what he had just seen.

"My God."

Estelle was now tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for her photographer to speak up. Fed up, she then snatched the large camera from his hand with surprising strength, and placed her eye to the viewfinder despite his protests.

"What the hell were you looking at!"

"I think it's him! That kid from a few days ago, that kid, Cody…Cody…"

"Cody Martin!" Estelle gaped as she caught a glimpse of the boy running on the pavement. "I'll recognize that head of white anywhere! He's…running towards that girl!"

Even as the words left her mouth, Estelle's eyes widened as she realized what Cody was trying to do.

"You're kidding me. He can't possibly be trying to risk his neck again…"

"So what do we do?"

Estelle gritted her teeth as she weighed her options. On one hand, the Herald would be pissed at her for ignoring their assigned scoop and running off to work on her own personal assignment again. On the other hand, opportunities like the situation that sat in front of her came only a few times in a lifetime.

She smiled with determination.

"We move forward."

Barry looked hesitant.

"The authorities are already waiting at the school for us. The Herald will be pissed."

"Fuck the Herald." Estelle smirked. "It's not like they've ever treated us well in the first place. Ask Nancy to go to the school herself, that silly bitch."

She took a few steps forward, with Barry following in her wake. Turning around, she thrust the camera back into her photographer's hands.

"Turn that to video mode, and keep the damn thing on the boy when we get close enough to get a good shot. Something tells me this is going to be big."

She wasn't disappointed.

* * *

><p>As the incoming car approached, Cody's brain anxiously surveyed and sweeped the area for any tool that he could use, any means he could find to save the situation, but to no avail. Realistically speaking, there was no way any tool could be used to save everybody, especially the man sitting in the driver's seat of the car, still rendered immobile by the blinding pain likely shooting up his left arm.<p>

Desperately, Cody turned his head to the sidewalks on both sides of the road and shouted at the crowds that had formed.

"Help!"

It was only after he screamed out the word did he realize that as valiant as his attempt for backup was, there was no way anything could be done to stop a speeding car. Cursing himself for wasting time, Cody decided to pool his attention on doing what he could still do.

The comatose girl lay in front of him.

Bending down, Cody squeezed his arm underneath the girl such that he had a firm grip around her. Picking up her limp arm and draping it around his shoulders, he hoisted her upwards and placed her on his back, surprised at his own strength when considering that the girl was heavier than he had expected. At the sidewalks, the crowds inhaled simultaneously as they wondered how the smaller boy had been able to lift a girl who was larger than his size.

Biting his lip to focus his attention on the task at hand, Cody turned himself to the left, the joints in his legs creaking precariously at the sudden influx of weight, and took a few large, rapid strides towards the sidewalk, twisting and narrowing avoiding getting himself and the girl killed by a red sedan that had quickly appeared from the side.

Just as he had leapt away from the path of the sedan, a yellow taxi cab, speeding blindly across the road, neared alarmingly close to the pair. Just like the motorcycle incident from before, comical gasps were heard from amidst the crowd.

Cody didn't know what had caused his brain to attempt his next move, but after he had survived he made a mental note to kill himself for putting himself in such a vulnerable position.

Only movies had action like the following.

Just as the yellow taxi cab approached the two, Cody, instead of swerving to the side out of harm's way, instead raced forward head-first at the cab that threatened to kill him. He accelerated, somehow knowing that speed would be crucial in the practical equation. Just when a single meter existed between the vehicle and the two people, Cody leapt upwards, carrying both his and the girl's weight skybound.

There was a loud thud as he landed feet-first on the hood of the cab, the loud shouts from the crowd mirroring their shock at the live movie scene.

Not stopping, Cody's legs continued dashing forward, skidding up the windshield of the cab and shocking the life out of the cab driver. Racing desperately over the slippery roof of the cab, he stomped onto the back windshield (accidentally cracking it due to the weight) and nearly slipped over the boot of the vehicle before landing back onto the firm surface of the tar and stone-laden ground.

Over in the crowds, an elderly woman fainted in shock.

Cody took a few seconds to find his bearings again, slightly disoriented by the sudden stop, his blood rushing desperately to his head as he tried to stay conscious.

_Damn traffic!_

Growling angrily, Cody closed his eyes in an attempt to ignore the throbbing in his legs, and dashed forward, the girl's head hanging limply over the side of his shoulder. Miraculously, traffic has slowed on the busy street, and Cody's traversing of the rest of the dangerous road was accident-free.

His legs finally touching the precious, precious stone of the pavement, Cody immediately knelt down and allowed the girl to slide off his shoulder on the floor. Almost instantaneously, a congregation of passer-bys surrounded the two, merely watching the show that was unfolding in front of them.

Already flustered by the high-speed running, Cody harnessed all his breath and expelled it in a violent scream.

"Don't just stand there! CALL A DAMN AMBULANCE!"

The surrounding people leapt back at Cody's sudden show of aggressiveness. Only after hearing his desperate prompt were cell phones extracted from pockets and the urgent three numbers dialed into keypads.

Cody placed his fingers to the carotid artery at the girl's neck, feeling desperately for a pulse. Realizing that his own racing pulse was confusing him, Cody instead took a step back and shouted out another desperate plea to the crowd.

"Is there a medic here? Anybody?"

There was a drifting cloud of chatter from the crowd as heads were turned, trying to see if anyone would respond to the white-haired boy's request for help. After a few seconds, a hand was raised from amidst the herd. A man in his late-forties stepped forward, the crowd moving backwards to allow him room to navigate through to the girl.

"I was a paramedic."

Cody looked with large, desperate eyes at the man.

"Please help!"

Without another word, the man squatted down and placed his fingers to the girl's neck, also bending his head over the girl's face to sense for any breathing. It took a few more anxious seconds for him to turn and smile at Cody.

"She's alive!"

Cody, along with the rest of the throng of people, sighed with relief.

Their relief was cut short by the sound of a loud explosion from a distance away.

Turning on his heel, Cody spun around in the direction of the sound, only to see what he had been dreading since the beginning of his spontaneous dash across the road.

A car.

A mass of jagged metal.

Just by observing the extent of the crash, even without being close the accident, Cody already knew.

He was gone.

A dreadful shiver ran along Cody's spine, as he wrapped his jacket ever so tightly around himself at the sudden chill that threatened to incapacitate him.

Over in the crowd, a video camera kept rolling.

* * *

><p>"He's going to get swarmed."<p>

Barry, momentarily stunned by the dramatic scenes that he was capturing with his camera, took a while to realize that Estelle was speaking to him.

"What?"

"He's going to get swarmed." Estelle repeated, removing the cigarette from her lips and dropping it to the ground, crushing it with her foot. "Didn't you see that? He's going to get swarmed by everybody. We can't have that."

Barry was confused.

"What exactly do we have to do with it?"

Estelle glared at her photographer.

"Don't you understand? The authorities have probably been called. In a few minutes this will turn into a huge mess. The reporters from the other newspapers will be here, and where will that leave us?"

Barry's eyes widened as he understood the implications.

"I understand. But how are we even supposed to-"

"We get him out of here."

"…what?"

Estelle gripped Barry's shirt collar and pulled him down to her height, screaming a whisper into his ear lest they be overheard.

"We need to bring him back to the office."

"How are we supposed to do that? I doubt he'll want to follow us, and we can't just pick him off the street…"

Upon seeing the glint in Estelle's eyes, Barry groaned.

"You're crazy."

"Crazy…or persevering?"

"I'm going to go with crazy."

"Look, just do it!" Estelle nearly shouted. "Do it now, or else we'll never get any amount of credit for being here at the perfect time to get the damn scoop! We might else well have been stuck at the stupid school interviewing people about that damn food poisoning case!"

Barry threw up his arms in surrender to Estelle's crazy idea.

"Alright, alright! But if we get hauled away for kidnapping, I'm going to tell them that it was all your idea!"

"This isn't kidnapping, and we'll finish up in about half an hour." Estelle glared at Barry. "Just…do it!"

* * *

><p>Cody found himself knee-first on the ground, the freezing cold feeling that had first emerged from his spine now flooding in the rest of his limbs and organs, leaving him nearly unable to move. Now feeling like he was about to throw up, he bent over and allowed his head to touch the floor, groaning heavily.<p>

_What's going on? Why am I so…_

Almost immediately, the congregation of people broke apart, a few of the inquisitive walking towards the white-haired boy who had just saved the girl who still lay comatose on the pavement. One of the walkers shouted out.

"Hey kid, are you okay?"

Cody wanted to shake his head, but couldn't find the strength to do so.

Just as worried hands were about to rest on his cold body, Cody heard a shout out.

"That's my son!"

Heads were turned.

"That's my son, please, let me take care of him!"

The passer-bys stepped back as a man, dressed in a chocolate brown windbreaker and black sunglasses, walked up to the boy and tucked his hands under his body. The hands felt foreign, but Cody could barely find any strength at all to protest as he was lifted off the ground and cradled bridal-style in the arms of the man.

"I…"

"Relax, son, let's go home."

Barry turned to the waiting crowd, and flashed a smile.

"Thank you all very much."

Before the crowd could catch on, Barry walked rapidly forward with Cody in his arms, praying that no one would realize the "Press" lanyard that was hanging loosely around his neck.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong> – Alright! I hope you all saw the author's note at the beginning of the chapter, and I hope my descriptions weren't too confusing. I always find it a challenge to convey action scenes into words, so I hope you all have found this chapter enjoyable.

Occasionally, I will insert snippets of narrator expositions, like the section about the Press in the beginning of the chapter. These expositions serve as lead-ons to some of the main themes and motifs I plant to gradually introduce in the story, and I hope you'll find them enriching and thought-provoking.

As you can see, Cody is starting to develop somewhat significantly. The true nature of what he's about to do will gradually be revealed near the end of this part of the story, but I'll drop in a few teasers like this chapter to keep everybody interested.

"Pulled a potter" and "apparate" aren't real English terms, so please don't use them in your essays (I trust you all know where I take them from).

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	9. Chapter 8

**Messiah – Chapter 8**

There was a timid knock on the door, causing both Carey and Zack to look up from their plates on the dining table, unfinished burnt bacon and overcooked eggs still sitting at their centers, remnants of Carey's last attempt at the culinary arts.

"I wonder who's there?" Carey wondered aloud as she stood from her seat to go to the door.

Upon her turning around, Zack hastily snatched up his plate and tipped it cautiously to the side of the table, allowing the nearly inedible food slide off the greasy layer on the ceramic surface into the trash bin that he had strategically positioned next to the table leg. Watching the food land firmly in the plastic bag, Zack took his foot off the pedal and placed his plate back firmly on the table, grinning as he rubbed his stomach and made fake yummy noises.

"Mmmm…that was delicious!"

Carey, blind to the fact that Zack had just efficiently gotten rid of his food, smiled back to her elder son in response.

"Thank you, Zack! I glad you liked it. It took me quite a bit of work to make it."

Zack gave her a thumbs-up in response. Upon turning back to the door, Carey suppressed a momentary shudder as she mumbled under her breath.

"You must have a cast-iron stomach, Zackary."

Putting on a smile to greet whoever was at the door, Carey placed her hand on the door handle and opened the door to the suite. Upon realizing that there was nobody at her eye level, she looked down and got a surprise.

"Max!" Carey smiled as she placed one hand on her hip. "It's nice to see you. What are you doing here so early?"

"Good morning Mrs Martin."

Zack looked up from the oily patterns he was sketching with his fork's tines on the greasy plate and smiled when he saw who was at the door.

"Hey, Max!"

"Yo." Max smiled a little sheepishly as she greeted Zack's wave with one of her own. "I was just…around the area, and wanted to see if Cody was doing okay…from the accident and all."

She started shuffling her feet nervously.

"Oh…" Carey looked back around at the suite. "Well, unfortunately you've missed him, Max. He left us a note saying that he's going to the library to do some research. You're welcome to come in and hang out with Zack though!"

"Yeah, Max!" Zack walked to the door, a chocolate chip cookie in his hand. "The game room has gotten some new games. We could go check that out!"

Carey crossed her arms and looked at her son.

"I thought Mr Moseby banned you from the game room."

"Well, what he doesn't see won't hurt him!" Zack flashed his mother an impish smile as he bit into the cookie.

"Well, I'd love to come in, but…" Max bit her lower lip in slight embarrassment. "I've got something to pick up at the nearby supermarket, and my mom's waiting for me back at home, so…"

"That's alright, honey. We'll let Cody know you came by."

"Thanks, Mrs Martin." Max gave her a grateful smile. "Bye Zack."

"Bye." Zack said, with his mouth full of chocolate and cookie.

Once Max had left and walked down the lobby, Carey shut the door carefully.

"That was…odd."

"Huh?"

"That was weird, wasn't it Zack?" Carey wondered thoughtfully. "Max came all the way up here to check on Cody, and then after she realizes Cody's not around she says she has to leave." She sat down firmly on the couch. "I don't want to be one of those mothers that poke and pry into her son's personal lives (this comment incited an eye-rolling from Zack), but is something going between Max and Cody?"

She was startled by Zack's scoffing.

"Mom, seriously?" Zack managed to make out in between giggles. "Max…and Cody? Please! There's no way anything could be happening between them?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I mean…they're completely different from each other! Max is sporty, doesn't do too well in school, and is kinda like a guy. Cody can't throw a ball to save his life, does incredibly well in school, and is kinda like a _girl_." The last word prompted Carey to cross her arms sternly.

Zack then sat back down on the couch, putting his feet up on the table once again despite his mother's protests.

"The only way those two could get together is if Cody becomes strong enough to not collapse when a strong wind hits him, or if Max starts dressing up like a girl for _once_."

* * *

><p>"Let go of me!"<p>

Having finally overcome the rush of iciness in his blood, Cody had finally come to his senses, and was appalled to find himself in the arms of the photographer who had visited him in the hospital about a week ago. Struggling with his own jacket that the photographer had firmly kept wrapped around him to restrain him, he tried to summon his superhuman show of strength from a few minutes ago, but failed.

To some extent, his mind was a caught up in an intangible blur, and he wasn't sure of what had truly happened.

What he wanted now, however, was to get out of the hands of the photographer.

Cursing himself for being so small, Cody decided against shouting for help, as it would attract more attention, which he honestly didn't need at this point of time. Convinced that he could somehow escape from the crazed photographer on his own, he instead resorted to a series of attempted barrel rolls while being held in bridal style, much to the photographer's frustration.

"Kid, hold still!"

"_You_ let me go, you freak!"

"Just _hold still_, I can explain this!"

"Then let me down! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I can expl-"

Barry fumbled with the weight in his hand, and was appalled to realize that Cody had finally managed to slip out of his jacket. However, the disadvantage of attempting barrel rolls to make a quick escape was clear, as Cody fell out of Barry's hands and landed painfully on the hard, cold ground.

Cody let out a sharp yelp, much to Barry's dismay.

"Hey kid, are you okay?"

"You're one to talk!" Cody turned and looked upwards at the pair of sunglasses hovering above his head, his cheeks burning red with anger. "Thanks for kidnapping me!"

"Look, I didn't kidnap you. We were just going to-"

"Shut up! I'm leaving!"

Struggling to his feet, Cody snatched his jacket out from Barry's hands and prepared to run away. What he didn't expect, however, was for a sudden stab of pain to rocket from his left foot to his spine, causing him to nearly fall over again as he gasped for breath.

Barry, not wanting to get in trouble for hurting the young boy, placed one arm on Cody's shoulder to support him.

"Kid, I think you're hurt."

"No duh!" Cody tried to swing himself out of Barry's grip, but failed miserably, his sprained ankle not helping matters much. "Thanks to you, you psycho photographer! What the hell was that about?"

"We needed to get you out of there."

Barry breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice, though still slightly angry at its master.

"Finally you're here!"

Cody turned to the direction where the third voice had come from, his features scrunching up in irritation as he saw the all too familiar face.

"It's you again!"

"Yes, yes, it's me. Nice to see you again, Cody."

Cody mustered up his best fierce expression and glared at the pair that stood in front of him, who didn't seem fazed at all despite his effort.

"What's up with you two? You just picked me off the street! You're crazy!"

"Exactly what I said…" Barry managed to mumble to Estelle, before he was cut off by a sharp nudge to the ribs. Estelle pulled out another fresh cigarette and lit it, ignoring the disgusted expression on Cody's face at the smell of the toxic fumes. Putting the cigarette to her lips, she took her time to inhale another drag of the nicotine.

"You don't have to be so upset." Estelle looked down at Cody's hands, which were scrunched up into tight fists. "Didn't you see the nice article I wrote for you in the Herald?" Made you look pretty good, didn't I?"

"I don't care! You had no right to-"

"Look, kid. Hold your tongue for a second." Estelle cut Cody off, much to his indignation. "Think about it for a second. What would have happened if we hadn't got you out of there?"

Cody's fists loosened somewhat as he realized the implications.

"You would have been swarmed by everyone within a few minutes. The authorities would be trying to get to you, along with all the other reporters from the other newspapers. Do you really want that kind of thing?"

Cody, now more suspicious than angry, narrowed his eyes.

"Why did you help me then? You must have some kind of ulterior motive, or else you wouldn't have even cared. And what were you doing there in the first place?"

Estelle, exasperated, looked at Barry, who gave her an expression of nonchalance. Turning back to Cody, she tried her best to calm her breathing.

"Look, Cody…" She tried to mellow down her harsh tone, eventually only managing to sound like an old smoker with a sore throat. "We're just reporters looking for scoop. We just want an interview."

Cody scoffed at her words.

"Really? After the treatment I got from the photographer here?"

Barry raised his hands.

"Hey hey, in my defense, carrying you was the only way I could have gotten you to follow me out of that place."

"Make things easier for us, Cody. Help us out a little here. Just follow us back to the Herald office, and we'll be done in about fifteen minutes."

Cody frowned. Though it was true that he did manage to get out of quite a messy situation, he wasn't pleased by the fact that he was taken by force. However, Cody had always been quite a soft-hearted child, and although he was still boiling inside, he eventually found himself grudgingly agreeing to their request, much to Estelle's pleasure.

"On one condition, though." Cody tried to maintain a neutral expression. "I don't want to go back to your office, it'll feel as though you guys are trapping me there. If you want an interview, we do it here."

* * *

><p>Max, still blushing heavily from the awkward encounter with the mother and brother of the boy she was planning to visit, cursed herself as she hastily made her way to the lift lobby. It was only after the doors were closed and she was sure she was alone did she begin to voice out her displeasure with herself.<p>

"Stupid Max, stupid!" She smacked herself on the head. Recalling the odd look that Carey had given her just a while ago, she cringed and desired no less than to burrow deep into the ground and stay there forever.

"What were you thinking? Who the hell visits someone else completely out of the blue, then leaves immediately when she's invited in? Dammit!"

Growling angrily to herself, she removed the sports cap from her head and buried her head in her hands, still mortified at what she had done.

"Carey will suspect something, and Zack might too. And then they might…"

Her heart fell even further into the abyss as she stumbled onto the realization of the consequences of her inappropriate decision.

"They might tell him that I came over and left. And then he might…"

Max smacked herself again for good measure.

"Stupid Max! Arrrgh!"

The elevator gave a contradictorily pleasant "ding" as it reached the lobby. Placing her cap back firmly on her head, Max took a deep breath as she contemplated what to do next.

"I could pretend that I really wanted to just see if he was okay, and since I was in the area I just decided to pop by…but no, I can't. He's been out of the hospital for a week already, and I've gone to school with him for the past few days and would've known that he was fine…"

Deep in thought, she walked absentmindedly out of the elevator once its doors opened.

"Maybe I should call Zack and tell him not to tell Cody that I came by. Wait…Zack would definitely suspect something is up, and it's not like he's a very trustworthy person…"

Without warning, a glass panel came into view. Before she could stop herself, Max found herself crashing painfully into the thick glass of the candy counter display case, falling backwards onto the floor. Blinking away quick tears that had sprung to her eyes, Max quickly felt her nose and was relieved when she realized that she hadn't broken it.

"My goodness, are you alright?"

Turning her head in the direction of the voice, Max blinked rapidly to clear the stars from her vision. A blond-haired girl dressed in a blue shirt and black skirt came into view, a Tipton employee tie hanging loosely from around her shirt collar.

"Are you alright? That was a pretty nasty fall!"

Before Max could say anything else, the girl had held onto her arms and helped her stand back up on her own feet. Wondering how she had been so distracted, Max adjusted her cap back on properly.

"Thanks, I'm fine."

"That's good. Wait…" Maddie narrowed her eyes as she dug around her memory bank for familiar faces. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

Max then realized who she was talking to. The girl's friendly profile was befitting to what she had heard from the twins regarding a certain candy counter girl that she had occasionally seen when visiting the hotel.

"Erm…you're Maddie, right?" Max smiled sheepishly as she ventured a guess. "I'm Max, one of Zack and Cody's friends."

"Oh, that's right!" Maddie smiled as she finally recognized the tomboy-ish girl. "You danced with Zack in that dance competition that was held at the Tipton. You guys were pretty good!"

"Yeah, till Zack injured himself and Cody tried to fill in for him." Max chortled as she recalled the recent memory. "It was fine till he tried his own choreography."

"Well, Cody has always been somewhat physically challenged." Maddie grinned. "So…what brings you to the Tipton?"

Max hesitated. Her best option would be to say that she was just making a casual visit to the twins, and perhaps to conjure some a tall tale about sports and video games. However, there was something deep within the blond girl's eyes that gave her an intense sense of assurance.

_Would it be wise to talk to her about this?_

It was rare that Max was able to share her problems with another person of her same gender. Most of the close friends that she had accumulated over the years were male, and her parents were too busy arguing at home to worry about their daughter's personal problems.

Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing to make a friend out of this older girl.

_But is she trustworthy?_

A diagnostic test was in order.

"I came to see Cody."

Maddie's eyes, completely non-judgmental, remained as they were before.

"Really? That's nice. I suppose you came to see if he was okay? You know, from the accident?"

Surprised that Maddie was picking up on her original white lie to Carey and Zack twenty-three floors up, Max nodded.

"Yes."

"Really." Maddie couldn't help but smirk a little as she folded her arms. "Well, I saw Cody leave the hotel this morning when I came in for my first shift, and I haven't seen him since, so I'm assuming this visit wasn't planned."

Max didn't know what to say.

"Also, I caught a glimpse of you going up the elevator about less than ten minutes ago. It would be strange for you to leave their suite immediately once, say, you realize Cody isn't there, especially since Zack's one of your good friends as well, I suppose."

Max gulped. _This girl is good_.

"And judging by how tightly you're gripping onto your jacket right now, I can tell that you're slightly taken aback by everything that I'm saying, which shows that something is almost definitely up."

Max glanced down and realized that her hands had formed unconsciously tight grips over her jacket pockets.

"So if I were to assume that what you said about your visit to Cody initially was true…" Maddie pondered while absentmindedly rubbing her chin. "You have…_feelings_…for Cody."

Max found herself spluttering.

"No, that's ridiculous! How did you even jump to that conclusion?"

"Don't worry, Max." Maddie's analytical phase evaporated as she went back to being genuinely friendly as before. "I was your age once, and this kind of thing happens to everybody. You're not alone. Besides…I'm the eldest out of seven brothers and sisters. You'd think I would have experience in dealing with such situations."

Max, now more embarrassed than anything at the fact that Maddie had essentially stripped her of her façade, shuffled her feet on the ground.

Maddie knew.

_So there's really no point in trying to hide this…_

Swallowing, Max scrounged up her courage and decided to trust instead of shun.

"You're right…something is up between Cody and me."

Maddie's eyes, warm yet analytical, twinkled.

"I knew it."

Snatching up the "On a Break" sign from behind the candy counter, Maddie placed the sign on the glass tabletop and placed her hand on Max's shoulder, much to her surprise.

"The ice cream place across the street serves the best sundaes in the world. My treat."

* * *

><p>Despite the ice pack on his sprained ankle and the comfortable couch, Cody wasn't feeling any more settled than he was after a certain incident on his way to the public library. After the hasty interview that he had granted to the perky reporter and her equally pesky photographer, Cody had limped his way back to the Tipton and took the time wincing in pain to simultaneously think about what had just happened.<p>

It all still seemed a blur, somewhat, as though he had imagined everything.

Something told him, however, that everything that had happened was absolute reality. Even half an hour from the incident, he still felt a tinge of sullen coldness, an invisible piece of ice, lodged within his spine, bringing to him a sense of jittery unsettling-ness.

There was something that Cody had considered doing before he made his fateful trip to the library, however his mind had immediately dismissed it as mental fodder upon pondering the implications, or non-implications, of the decision.

His mother had left the suite to buy groceries, leaving him with his brother in the suite alone. Zack was, for some reason, actually sitting at the dining table and working on his homework, a rare occurrence where he was studying and quiet.

Looking at his twin, Cody realized the stupidity of the decision. Knowing Zack's personality, it was likely that his worries would get immediately shot down by a quip, a taunt, or a sneer of some kind. Twelve years as the brother of a relatively insensitive twin brother had taught him that.

However, his mind drifted back to about a week ago, where the twins had shared a rare brotherly moment in the bedroom where Cody had confessed to Zack his bully problems. Surely that counted for something? Surely that meant that Zack was capable of listening and actually caring about his younger brother?

Cody sighed. _This shouldn't have to be so hard_.

Finally settling on his decision, Cody placed the ice pack on the small table beside him and tried his best to sit up straight. Feeling almost sorry that he was about to disturb Zack from one of his rare moments of sustained concentration on schoolwork, he then cleared his throat loudly.

Zack, upon hearing his brother, turned his head away from the algebra problems in front of him.

"Codes?"

"Zack." Cody tried his best to smile. "There's something…that I need to tell you."

Confused and curious, Zack stood from his seat at the dining table and walked up to the couch, sitting down comfortably next to his twin brother, waiting for him to speak.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong> – Surprise! A mid-week chapter. This one just serves as a way for me to bring in multiple mini plot lines in the story, hopefully it was still nice to read despite the lack of action.

It's still pretty light at this point, but some readers will eventually sense a darkening of the mood of the story as the chapters go along. Heavier themes will soon be introduced, so I recommend that those who enjoy little family fun snippets enjoy them as they are now, as the humorous moments will get rarer and rarer as I proceed with my writing.

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	10. Chapter 9

**Messiah – Chapter 9**

How does one even begin telling one's twin that something from one's dream might be coming true?

This was the stuff of conversations from cliché Disney movies, childish fantasies and, as far as Cody saw it, ridiculous mental delirium. This was exactly the thing that one might see on the television, perhaps in a poorly scripted and badly acted TV movie that the producers had no real faith in, uttered by actors not worth their paychecks, simultaneous cringing uttered from the parents and older siblings in the many living rooms across the country as the toddlers sat in front of the big screen, entranced.

The more Cody looked and relooked objective at the situation, it did not look good. It did not. At all. In his mind were a myriad of possibilities, each new idea exponentially more dire than the last.

Possibility one: Zack will laugh at him, call him for his bullshit, and laugh some more.

Possibility two: Zack will laugh at him, call him for his bullshit, and tell of their friends such that they would never take him seriously again.

Possibility three: Zack will laugh at him, call him for his bullshit, and tell their mom, who will promptly go into mom-mode and send him for psychiatric evaluation as "the accident might have done something" to him.

Possibility four: Zack will think that he's crazy, and never take him seriously again.

Right now, Zackary Martin was already sitting in front of him, waiting for him to speak. There was practically no other way out of the situation but to either lie, or tell him the truth. The former seemed like the far simpler choice, but Cody was already feeling guilty for diverting Zack's suspicions before, and didn't want to lie to his brother about it again.

Perhaps telling someone about it would be a good idea after all. Perhaps he was just being pessimistic about the whole situation.

Taking in a deep breath, Cody looked past his still-silvery fringe and focused onto his brother's eyes, which were now looking at him with childish wonder.

"Oi. Cody."

Cody snapped out of his mental monologue and looked at his brother, who was now looking slightly irritated.

"You went into standby mode again."

"Um…sorry." Cody frowned to himself. Recently he had become more and more prone to spacing out thinking to himself, much to the displeasure of those who talked to him.

"Look, is there something you want to tell me? If not, I've got to finish two more pages of that algebra or our teacher is going to have my _head_ tomorrow."

"Yes." Cody stammered before Zack could stand from his seat. "Yes, I've got something…important to tell you. But…" Cody grasped onto Zack's arm, causing him to nearly jump up, startled. Zack stared down at Cody's fingers grasping tightly around his forearm in surprise.

"But you have to promise that you won't tell anyone, and you won't think I'm crazy."

"Well, judging by the way you're gripping onto me right now, you're going to run that risk either way…" Zack gave Cody a small smile as the hands were withdrawn. "But alright, Codes. I promise."

"Really?'

"Scout's honor." Zack raised up three fingers, mimicking the scout salute. "Though I'm not a scout."

Cody gulped and tried to calm himself yet again.

"Alright. Erm…"

Cody started rubbing his fingers together.

"Recently, I've been having these…dreams."

"Dreams?"

"Yeah, dreams." Cody looked up at Zack, who was now looking slightly more confused than before. "And the dreams are pretty weird. They always involve this guy dressed in white who would speak to me."

Zack narrowed his eyes.

"Uh huh…"

"And the weird thing is, the things that have been happening recently…came up in the dreams."

"What things?"

"You know…the fire and the accident. The reporters that have been trying to talk to me. The _hair_."

Zack's jaw slackened slightly at the last comment.

"What about your hair?"

"The guy in my dream…predicted it would turn…white."

Zack's eyebrows were now raised so high that they had nearly vanished beneath his fringe.

"Zack…"

"…Yes Codes?"

Cody lip quivered.

"I think whatever the guy is saying in my dreams…is coming true."

* * *

><p>"Where the hell were you?"<p>

Estelle looked up from her nails, which were being carefully filed, at the person standing who was standing in front of her desk, quivering with rage. The man, hair smeared sickeningly in an overly thick layer of gel, with practically breathing smoke through his nostrails. Still, Estelle merely stared at him with an expression of completely nonchalance, her two feet still resting un-demurely on the table top amidst uncountable sheets of paper.

The man glared at her with as much as hatred as he could muster.

"Nancy told you and Barry to go down to the school to report the food poisoning case. I just got a call from our correspondent who arrived at the scene that you didn't show up and didn't make any calls to tell them that you'll be late. Clearly judging by the way you've got your ass planted on that seat, you don't care about the assignment! You're ruining the good name of the Herald here!"

Estelle couldn't bite back her scoff.

"Good name?" Estelle smirked. "Assign me more of that kind of crap, _Mr Treeger_, and I swear the Herald's popularity ratings will eventually drop below that of the _Telegram & Gazette_. People don't want to read that kind of crap! It's the kind of stuff that just makes newspapers look thick so people will consider buying them to get their money's worth in paper weight!"

"What? How…how dare you!" Mr Treeger pointed a threatening finger at his employee, who was still seated without a care in the world at her desk. "Estelle, I have the power to put you out of work and into the homeless shelter in a few minutes, and I swear to God I'll do it! You've been treading on my toes for far too long!"

Estelle then slowly rose from her seat. Glancing into her boss's eyes, her gaze spoke of insurmountable cold and bitterness.

"It's been so many years, Mr Treeger, and still this is what you think of me. To you I'm just a useless, disposable piece of trash that you can just kick around as you wish. Thankfully, unlike some other mindless reporters I actually have a brain and am capable of deciding what scoop matters and what does _not_."

Estelle picked up a piece of freshly printed-paper from the printer tray, and slammed it into her boss's hands. Snatching up Barry's camera from the table, she dropped it into Mr Treeger's other free hand.

"Knock yourself out, _sir_."

Smirking smungly, Estelle stepped out from her cubicle and walked towards the staff lounge, leaving behind a speechless boss in her wake. A few seconds down her path, she turned around.

"And don't bother trying to steal this scoop from me and passing it as more of the trash in this department, like that fire article from a week ago, Mr Treeger. I've already sent a copy of all the documentation of _this_ scoop to the _main offices_. Eventually they'll find out what you've been passing me off for all these years."

Mr Treeger's faced whitened slightly. Estelle's smirk grew wider.

"Have a good day."

* * *

><p>"Huh."<p>

Zack was now seated, butt firmly on the couch, listening to his brother conclude the tale of his dreams with a mysterious white figure and prophecies that seemed to be coming true. After finally describing the latest dream he has had and his issues with the malfunctioned hair dye (which strategically leaving out the road accident), Cody stopped and took a few deep breaths and anticipated what Zack was going to say.

_Something along the lines of laughter would be a good prediction_.

What Cody didn't expect, however, was for Zack move his feet up to the couch and sit crosslegged, placing one arm on his knee and resting his head snugly on it, tapping his chin with his finger.

"Huh."

Cody merely sat on the adjacent seat, knees tightly together in a body expression that read of slight trepidation at what was to come. The judgment from the insensitive older sibling would descend upon him soon enough.

"Refresh my memory…when did you have the first dream?"

Cody's eyes snapped open. Zack's tone sounded genuinely concerned, and his words did not match Cody initial hypothesis of what was to come at all. Clearly there was something wrong. He frowned.

"Huh?"

Zack raised one eyebrow.

"What huh?"

"Exactly."

"What?"

"What?"

"You said huh?"

"So did you!"

"I said that because I was…aw dammit, let's start over!" Zack screwed up his eyebrows in frustration. "What's the matter with you? You keep spacing out!"

"That's cause I thought you actually asked when I had the first dream!"

Zack threw his hands up in the air.

"I _did_!"

Cody stared in wonderment at his brother.

"Do you actually…mean that?"

Zack was now tempted to tackle Cody to the floor, but something in his brain told him that it wouldn't help matters much.

"Yes…I do actually mean that. What makes you think I'm not?"

Cody was now feeling very small at jumping to an assumption regarding his brother.

"Well, I expected you to laugh and mock me. I expected you to say that whatever I said was ridiculous, that it was just a dream, or something along those lines…"

"Well, it honestly is a bit hard to believe." Zack smirked. "I mean…stuff in your dreams coming true? That's like…the stuff you find in movies."

"Exactly what I thought." Cody's stomach butterflies were now slowly fluttering away as Zack seemed to understand where he was coming from. "So…do you actually believe me?"

Cody looked at Zack with such sincere eyes that the latter couldn't help but accept whatever he was saying as truth. Cody, the younger twin, had always been more virtuosic with regards to his manipulation of external emotion. Though the two looked nearly identical, Zack had never been able to convey heartfelt sentiment as well as his brother.

Despite the fact that Zack had lived much of his childhood with characters and imaginary places, figments of his imagination in his head, he still found whatever Cody was saying to be practically impossible.

"Honestly? No, I don't."

Cody's face fell at Zack's words.

"Oh."

Zack looked at Cody's crestfallen face and wondered how much this was bothering him. Cody hardly ever joked about anything, and considering how much of a goody-two-shoes his brother was, the word "lie" was definitely not contained within his dictionary.

_Is this really a simple joke?_

"Codes…I need more information. All you did was just briefly describe everything that has happened."

Cody looked up at his brother.

"You want me to go deeper?"

"Yep." To Cody's disbelief, Zack snatched up a notepad and pencil from the table and plopped back down onto the couch, looking very much like an eager reporter.

"Why are you suddenly so excited about this? You just said that you didn't believe me!"

"It's not like I've got anything better to do."

Cody gestured to the unfinished worksheets on the table.

"Math?"

Zack shrugged.

"Like I said."

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later, the living room of suite 2330 of the Boston Tipton looked more like a psychiatrist office than an area of accommodation, the primary object stimulating that assumption being the boy that was lying on the pullout couch, now pulled out as though it were a bed, his eyes focusing on the cracks of the ceiling above him. A blanket rested on his skinny frame. Beside him sat a boy that looked similar to himself, sitting with one leg up on a comfortable padded chair, wearing a pair of large glasses with fake lenses, looking remarkably sophisticated, save for the pencil in his mouth, his teeth working the fibers in the wood.<p>

It would have made a pretty picture.

Going through the handsome list of details that were roughly scribbled on his notepad, Zack removed the pencil from his mouth and let out a comical "hm" that spoke of mock erudition and childish make believe. Upon hearing Zack's mumble, Cody turned his head to the right and immediately frowned.

"What are you…take those glasses off, you look ridiculous!"

Zack let out a judgmental "tut tut" before looking over the fake lenses at Cody, much like a real doctor thrice his age would. He spoke his next lines in a cringingly bad English accent, sticking up his nose as he did so.

"Please. You shouldn't have any trouble with me donning these since you clearly subscribe to your imagination as much as I do, based on the anecdotes you've just treated me to, old chap. I do encourage adolescents like us to exercise our cranial centers frequently to avoid excessive tedium and aridity. Perhaps you would like to join me later for a spot of tea and a nice round of golf to clear your mind. Ah. Aha, ha ha."

Cody squeezed the bridge of his nose as a headache threatened to form, his ears bleeding slightly at the sound of Zack's over-stereotypical and over-emphasized fake accent.

"Number one." Cody stuck up his index finger while keeping his eyes closed. "Did you understand a word of what you just said?"

"Not a clue, old chap."

"Yeah, so I thought. Number two." Cody stuck up another finger. "That is _not_ how you use tedium and aridity in a sentence. Also, the English don't actually speak like that."

Zack dropped the English façade for a short moment as he pouted.

"And number three." Cody stuck up yet another finger. "Could you please…_get back to whatever I was saying?_"

"Sorry." Zack grinned as he removed the toy glasses. Crawling onto the pullout couch and sitting comfortably next to Cody, he tore out the piece of paper from the notepad and placed it in front of both their eyes.

"Here's what we've got so far."

Both brothers, one hand each on the piece of paper, read simultaneously as Zack read out his words.

"Your hair turned white about a week ago for no reason whatsoever. After it happened, the next time you saw the person in your dream, he brought it up."

"Yes, he did." Cody then recalled his little bit of research. "Oh, and I checked the internet for overnight hair whitening. It's scientifically and medically impossible."

"Right." Zack scribbled down Cody's points on the paper (Cody sitting next to him in awe, wondering when had Zack become so meticulous). "Right, going on…the person also mentioned the fire and the girl you saved after it had happened. And this happened while you were sleeping in the hospital."

"Yes."

"Also, when you dashed into the building to save the girl, you didn't hear any screaming at all in the first place, and something "possessed" you to run inside."

"Yeah." Cody said sheepishly. "I understand this part can be a little hard to believe."

"When you went inside and saw the girl, there was a…wall of fire that separated you from her. You tried to leap over the flames to reach her, but ended up…running through the fire to get to her?"

Zack looked up at Cody in disbelief, as his brother nodded affirmatively.

"Can't believe that you would actually try something like that, but oh well…" Zack mumbled under his breath as he brought his eyes back down onto the piece of paper. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Are you sure you aren't lying?"

"What? I told you, all of this is true!"

"Really." Zack folded his arms. "So you're telling me…that you ran through fire, and you didn't even get burnt? You were treated for smoke inhalation _only _at the hospital, in fact that doctor specifically said that you didn't get burnt _at all_."

Zack was at that point expecting Cody to announce that he was bluffing, but Cody merely stared back at him with determination.

"Precisely."

Biting his lower lip, Zack looked at the piece of paper yet again, the pencil in his hands slowly tracing out the letters to a few more words on its surface.

"The first time the person talked to you, he mentioned you getting powers…that you'll use to save the world?"

"Yes."

Zack shook his head. "I can't believe this, Cody, this is far too imaginative to be real."

Cody nearly stood up.

"It's true!"

"I don't think so, Codes." Zack smiled pacifyingly. "Just because you somehow didn't get burnt in the fire, doesn't mean that these…powers…are true in any way. Besides, you telling me all this isn't proof that what you said is true. It doesn't make any sense. Knowing you, you would never run through fire for anything. Nice try, bro, but you went too far with the joke." Zack tossed the paper in the air, watching it flutter meekly onto the couch at Cody's feet.

"You're going to need more practice if you want to become a true prankster like me."

Ignoring the look of exasperation on Cody's face, Zack stood from his seat and walked towards the kitchen, intending to pick up some food. Behind him, Cody remained seated on the couch, exhausted and disappointed.

_He doesn't believe me_.

_It's not like he would in the first place_.

Cody buried his face in his hands.

A sound of rattling forced him to look up despite himself. In the kitchen stood Zack, who was now looking at the counter in partial horror.

On the kitchen counter sat the microwave oven, which was emitting threatening, rattling sounds, not at all befitting of a machine meant for heating up food. Knowing that something was up, Cody narrowed his eyes.

"Zack?" He spoke slowly. "What did you do?"

Zack stuttered out his next words.

"While I was asking you questions, I felt a little hungry, so I put a few cans of food in the microwave."

Cody's fingers tensed up as they gripped the blanket.

"Did you remove the food from the cans and place them in a bowl?"

"Erm…no."

"Did you at the very least…open the cans first?"

"…No."

_Idiot!_

Even from afar, Cody could see tiny sparks of light from behind the darkened glass panel of the microwave. The rattling grew louder.

Cody then realized how close Zack was standing to the kitchen appliance.

"Zack…stand back."

Zack didn't seem to have heard him, as he continued staring at the bright lights from within the microwave, as though mesmerized by the miniature fireworks display that was taking place from within.

"Zack, seriously, stand back."

No reaction.

"Zack." Cody cautiously got off the couch. "It's dangerous."

"I…"

It seemed that all Zack could do was to continue staring.

"Zack."

A terrible beeping noise rang shrilly from the microwave. Looking more closely at the appliance, Cody's eyes widened as he realized how many cans Zack had placed into the microwave.

_Oh sh.._

"Zack!"

There was a thundering eruption of sound as the amalgam of aluminum and tin, superheated through vibrations by the microwaves that penetrated it, discharged its potential energy into kinetic energy as the cans ripped into shreds, setting free the food that sat within their cores. Unsatisfied with the minute space that they had to roam, the pieces of metal hit the microwave door, shattering the glass into innumerous pieces.

Zack snapped out of his trance too late.

The metal shrapnel, some pieces sharp enough to tear through surfaces far thicker than human skin, joined courses with the globules of superheated food as they flew forward, heading towards the object that stood right in front of them.

Zack let out a blood curdling scream as he raised his arms and shut his eyes, preparing for the ripping of his flesh by the uncontrollable pieces of jagged metal.

The pain would come any second now.

He could already feel the blood streaming down every pore in his skin.

He scrunched up his eyes tighter.

Nothing.

In disbelief, Zack slowly opened his eyelids. The sight that greeted him stunned him beyond words.

Minute pieces of aluminum and tin.

Globules of superheated food.

Suspended in mid air, just inches away from his face.

Trying to reach him, but failing to, as though some invisible force was stopping them.

Taking a few steps back as his legs threatened to collapse from beneath him, Zack slowly turned around, only to see his brother standing a few meters away, one hand outstretched as though trying to reach for an invisible object. His gut churned uncomfortably as he realized what Cody was doing.

Zack felt as though his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

Cody, for some reason, looked similarly flabbergasted at the sight.

"Well…"

Turning back to the kitchen, Zack got another glimpse at the weapons of bloody murder that he had almost just succumbed to, and felt himself beginning to hyperventilate.

Cody swallowed nervously.

"…that's new."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note – <strong>In all honestly, I'm not entirely satisfied with my take on this chapter. I wrote about halfway through before I realized how boring I was making it, which explains why I tried to inject in a little humor at Zack's psychiatrist "moment". I apologize for this one being slightly draggy (with most of the content concentrated in one area of the story), but it was inevitable, to some sense. To jump around about different scenes would diminish the impact of the main content for this chapter.

Reviews appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN


	11. Author's Note to all Readers

To all readers of this fanfic:

Hello! I realize I've neglected Fanfiction for what, 9 months now? Sincere, sincere apologies to everyone of this fandom for my unexplained absence. I've been spending the last year preparing for a series of very important examinations, thus I have not had time to write any further. Unfortunately, the exams arrive in about two months, therefore I cannot promise any updates at this point.

Also, I recently read what has been written for the past 9 chapters and I admit one point that a few readers have raised: The Max/Cody plot device was somewhat awkward. The more I read my own writing, the more I realize the difficulties I will face with balancing the main plot with this challenging subplot, especially as the story moves forward. When I do return to this fanfic, I might consider redoing a few bits of it. An author's note will be released in the last published chapter to inform all readers of the changes, just in case anyone feels lost.

My interest comes and goes. I still have strong ideas for this fanfic, and will probably return once I have the time to. Watch this story, it's not over yet.

~SUITELIFEFAN


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